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CARLISLE  MEMORIAL  VOLUME 


DR.  J.   H.  CARLISLE 


CARLISLE 


EDITED  BY 

WATSON  BOONE  DUNCAN 


AUTHOK  or 


"Charaeter-BuilSing."  "Our  Vowi." 
" Immortalitif  and Mo3em  Thouiht," 
"Stu3ie»  in  MethodiH  Literature," 
"The  More   Excellent  Wajf."  Etc 


Printed  for  the  Author 

Publishing  House  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South 

Nashville,  Teon. 

1916 


copmiGHT,  1916 

BT 
WATSON  BOONI  DUKCAN 


LIBllARY 

UMVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

SANTA  BARBARA 


firiiifatian 

TO  THE  WOFFORD  BOYS 

THIS  VOLUMI  IS 
AFFECTIONATELY 
DEDICATED 


;^ 


CARLISLE 

Just  as  the  sun,  behind  a  western  hill, 
Adorns  the  heavens  with  its  radiant  beams, 
Makes  them  to  glow  with  brilliancy  until 
Earth  lit  up  with  reflected  splendor  seems, 
So  with  this  noble  man,  although  he's  gone, 

His  greatness,  shining  out  through  other  men. 

Continues  ever  to  go  on  and  on; 

And  through  the  lives  of  these  he  lives  again, 

Resembling  much  a  wave  upon  the  deep. 

Lashing  itself  to  pieces  'gainst  the  shore. 

Is  broken,  but  yet  not  destroyed,  and  sweeps 

Still  back  again  and  onward  evermore — 

Like  this,  he  lives  forever  on  until 

Earth  to  the  uttermost  parts  his  life  will  fill. 

—  IV,  Grady  Hazel. 


CONTENTS. 

Page. 
Foreword  9 

Chapter  I. 
The  Carlisle  Family " 

Chapter  II. 
Life  Sketch  of  Dr.  Carlisle 19 

Chapter  III. 
Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Citizen 63 

Chapter  IV. 
The  Wofford  Chapel  Hour 89 

Chapter  V. 
Wofford  College  and  Its  President  Twenty  Years  Ago. ...    97 

Chapter  VI. 
Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Teacher ill 

Chapter  VII. 
Tributes  to  Dr.  Carlisle 131 

(7) 


FOREWORD. 

From  the  day  that  Dr.  James  Henry  Carlisle, 
South  Carolina's  greatest  son,  passed  beyond  the 
shadows  I  have  felt  that  it  would  be  an  irreparable 
loss  to  the  citizenship  of  the  nation  not  to  have  some 
literary  preservation  of  the  story  of  his  inspiring 
life.  The  good  Doctor  had  expressed  the  wish  that 
no  biography  of  himself  be  published.  This  wish 
has  been  sacredly  kept.  After  much  deHberation  I 
conceived  the  plan  of  this  memorial  volume,  which, 
in  a  measure  at  least,  preserves  the  remarkable  story 
of  Wofford's  "beacon  light"  without  violating  his 
desire. 

The  plan  of  this  volume  was  submitted  to  Dr. 
Carlisle's  son,  Mr.  James  H.  Carlisle,  of  Spartan- 
burg, S.  C,  and  was  heartily  indorsed  by  him.  I 
wish  to  express  my  thanks  to  all  who  have  so  kindly 
assisted  me  in  the  preparation  of  the  material  for  the 
book.  The  article  by  Prof.  Robert  Law  first  ap- 
peared in  the  Alcalde  and  is  used  here  by  permission. 
The  tribute  by  Associate  Justice  Woods  first  ap- 
peared in  the  State.  The  other  tributes  are  taken 
from  the  Southern  Christian  Advocate  and  the 
Wojford  College  Journal. 

The  preparation  of  the  book  has  been  a  work  of 

(9) 


10  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

love ;  and  I  send  the  volume  forth  with  the  earnest 
hope  that  it  will  contribute  to  the  perpetuation  of  the 
influence  of  the  great  teacher,  the  honored  citizen, 
and  the  humble  Christian,  James  Henry  Carlisle. 

Very  sincerely,  Watson  Boone  Duncan. 

The  Parsonage,  Manning,  S.  C,  January,  1916. 


CHAPTER  I. 
The  Carlisle  Family, 


CHAPTER  I. 
The  Carlisle  Family. 

ARTICLE  FROM  THE  NEWS  AND  HERALD,  WINNSBORO,  N.  C, 
APPEARING  SATURDAY,  DECEMBER  l8,  IQOQ. 

WiNNSBORO  has  no  prouder  distinction  than  that 
of  having  been  the  birthplace  of  Dr.  James  H.  Car- 
lisle, in  whose  death,  at  Spartanburg  on  October  2, 
the  State  of  South  Carolina  sustained  the  loss  of 
her  most  distinguished  son.  Not  only  was  Winns- 
boro  his  birthplace  (the  house  in  which  he  was  born 
is  still  standing  on  the  lot  adjoining  the  old  Method- 
ist church),  but  in  the  quiet  churchyard  hard  by  lie 
the  remains  of  his  parents  and  grandparents.  This 
burial  ground  of  the  dead  is  a  very  compact  plot, 
well  crowded  and  containing  in  its  sacred  bosom  all 
that  is  mortal  of  Hilliard  Judge  and  John  R.  Pick- 
ett The  former  was  one  of  the  pioneers  of  Meth- 
odism in  these  parts  and  accomplished  a  great  work, 
though  he  passed  away  at  the  early  age  of  thirty- 
three.  The  latter  was  a  most  influential  local 
preacher,  a  successful  man  of  business,  and  at  his 
death  left  a  considerable  estate  to  Woff ord  College 
on  the  death  of  his  wife,  who  survived  him  about 
twenty  years.  A  nice  shaft  marking  his  last  resting 
place  was  erected  to  his  memory,  a  place  being  left 
on  the  same  for  an  inscription  to  his  wife.     Dr. 

(13) 


14  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

Carlisle  interested  himself  to  see  that  this  wish  of 
the  college's  benefactor  was  carried  out. 

As  is  not  infrequently  the  case,  the  family  plots 
in  these  churchyards  have  no  well-defined  dividing 
line,  and  there  is  lacking  symmetry  of  arrangement. 
The  Carlisle  plot  is  rather  an  exception  to  this  rule, 
if  taken  in  its  entirety.  It  occupies  a  considerable 
space  on  the  eastern  side,  including  the  Buchanan 
and  Morrison  graves. 

Not  many  days  ago  we  visited  this  plot  for  the 
purpose  of  making  a  copy  of  the  inscriptions  on 
these  Carlisle  stones,  which  are  the  plainest  marble 
slabs,  let  down  into  the  ground  without  even  a  base 
to  rest  upon.  Some  old  cloths  that  had  been  carried 
along  for  the  purpose  came  in  most  suitably  for 
rubbing  these  stones  off  so  that  the  inscriptions 
might  be  read.  These  are  given  below,  the  relation 
to  the  deceased  being  expressed  in  the  heading: 

GRANDFATHER. 

In  memory  of 

James  Carlisle, 

WHO  DIED  September  22d,  A.D.  1833, 

IN  THE  68th  year  OF  HIS  AGE, 

ueaving  a  widow,  six  sons,  and  one  daughter, 

who  have  erected  this  stone  as  a  tribute  of 

heart  and  affection. 

"Why  shoxjld  we  mourn  for  dying  friends 

Or  SHAKE  AT  death's  ALARMS? 
'TiS  BUT  THE  VOICE  THAT  JeSUS  SENDS 
To  CALL  US  TO  HIS  ARMS." 


The  Carlisle  Family.  15 

GRANDMOTHER. 

Sacred  to  the  memory  of 

Mary  Carusle. 

Born  May  26,  1769; 

Died  April  25,  1847. 

Aged  jj  years  and  ii  months. 

FATHER. 

William  Carlisle. 

Born  in  Antrim,  Ireland, 

July  26,  1797; 

Died  March  28,  1867. 

MOTHER. 
Here  rests  in  hope 

THE  body  of 

a  Christian  wife  and  mother, 

Mary  Anne  Carlisle. 

Born  Feb.  16,  1801; 

Died  June  19,  1858. 

"God  bless  all  my  children  and  help  them 

TO  MEET  ME  IN  THE  REALMS  OF  BLISS."     AmEN. 
"Now   TOIL  AND   SUFFERING  O'eR, 

go  take  with  saints  thy  place ! 
But  go  as  all  have  gone  before, 
a  sinnek  saved  by  grace." 

By  her  side  lie  the  remains  of  her  first-born, 
James  Hemy,  who  died  June  13,  1821,  aged  forty- 
two  day«. 

After  copying  these  inscriptions,  we  wrote  to 
Prof.  W.  S.  Morrison,  of  Qemson  G)llege,  whose 
mother  is  Dr.  Carlisle's  sister  and  who  is  stiU  living 
at  her  home  near  Blackstock.  In  response  to  certain 
inquiries  therein,  he  has  kindly  furnished  us  with 


i6  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

some  interesting  facts  about  the  ancestors  of  him 
whose  death  is  sorely  mourned.  These  are  now 
published  probably  for  the  first  time. 

The  first  of  these  is  a  letter  to  Dr.  Carlisle's 
grandfather,  in  Ireland,  by  Rachel  Buchanan.  The 
copy  furnished  us  by  Professor  Morrison  is  from  a 
copy  made  by  Dr.  James  H.  Carlisle  at  Spartanburg 
May  21,  1906.  This  copy  by  Dr.  Carlisle  bears  this 
note  at  the  top: 

Copy  of  a  letter  written  to  my  grandfather,  who  died  in 
Ireland  in  1813.  His  three  brothers — ^John,  Creighton,  and 
Robert — had  come  to  South  Carolina.  Their  mother,  Rachel 
(Phillips)  Buchanan,  is  buried  in  the  Presbyterian  churchyard 
a  few  miles  west  of  Winnsboro,  S.  C. 

Rachel  Buchanan's  Letter. 

Mr.  William  Buchanan, 

Near  Ballamara. 

.  .  .  much  hurt  for  want  of  your  presence  in  this  coun- 
try; but  as  you  feel  disposed  to  spend  your  day  in  your  native 
country,  I  must  endeavor  to  set  myself  down  easy  upon  the 
subject.  A  short  space  of  time  will  finish  my  course  here, 
and  I  shall  go  to  my  long  home.  My  blessings  you  have. 
Pray  for  yourself  and  me,  that  we  may  all  be  happy  in  the 
world  to  come.  I  will  remain  at  your  brother  Creighton's. 
His  son  John  is  now  grown  to  be  a  fine  boy  and  about  a 
month  ago  was  inoculated  for  the  smallpox  and  is  now  finally 
recovered.  Your  sister  Mary  is  also  well.  Your  brother 
John  and  family  are  well,  but  much  emaciated  in  consequence 
of  his  fatigue  in  the  late  war.  I  received  your  letter  by  John 
Gray.  Am  sorry  to  hear  of  the  loss  of  your  daughter,  but 
hope  she  is  happier  than  with  you.  Your  brother  John  says 
he  will  not  write  to  you,  as  he  has  given  you  many  long  letters 
and  has  no  reply. 

Our   last  account   from   Ireland  and   England   i$   rather 


The  Carlisle  Family.  ly 

alarming.  We  wish  you  may  not  be  too  premature.  Stop 
your  proceedings  until  G.  the  3d  is  underground  and  then — 

Your  friends  here  all  join  in  their  kind  wishes  for  you. 
My  blessing  and  best  respects  to  my  daughter  Mary  (your 
wife). 

Remember  the  one  thing  needful.    I  remain 

Your  affectionate  mother,  Rachel  Buchanan. 

Little  River,  14th  March,  1793. 

Professor  Morrison's  Notes. 

The  above  letter  is  made  much  more  interesting 
by  the  following  notes  from  the  pen  of  Professor 
Morrison: 

"Presbjrterian  church  a  few  miles  west  of  Winnsboro"  is 
Jackson  Creek  Church. 

"Brother  Creighton"  was  Creighton  Buchanan,  buried  in 
Fairfield,  grandfather  of  Mr.  R.  N.  McMaster. 

"His  son  John"  was  Gen.  John  Buchanan,  buried  in  the 
Presbyterian  churchyard  at  Winnsboro,  a  signer  of  the  Ordi- 
nance of  Secession. 

"Brother  John"  was  Capt.  John  Buchanan,  buried  in  the 
Methodist  churchyard  at  Winnsboro. 

William  Buchanan  died  in  Ireland. 

His  widow  Nancy  {nee  Ray;  "Mary,"  in  an  old  letter, 
must  be  a  mistake  of  the  typewriter  whose  copy  I  have  copied, 
as  Mrs.  Carlisle,  her  sister,  was  Mary)  and  four  children 
came  to  Winnsboro, 

Four  children  of  William  Buchanan  and  his  wife  Nancy 
were :  Mary  Ann,  who  married  her  first  cousin,  William  Car- 
lisle; John  R.,  buried  in  the  Methodist  churchyard  at  Winns- 
boro; Rachel,  who  married  James  McCreight,  buried  in  tha 
Presbyterian  churchyard  at  Winnsboro;  and  Nancy,  who 
married  John  Lewis  and  moved  to  Florida. 

From  the  same  authoritative  source  we  have  tho 
following  most  interesting 
2 


l8  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume, 

Carlisle  Data. 

James  Carlisle,  a  shoemaker,  and  his  wife  Mary  (nee 
Ray)  came  from  County  Antrim,  Ireland,  to  Fairfield  about 
1818.  They  first  settled  on  Hobble  Road  Branch,  eleven  miles 
north  of  Winnsboro,  on  the  place  now  owned  by  Robert  Ster- 
ling. From  there  they  moved  to  Dumper's  Creek  and  lived  on 
a  place  known  as  the  Hindman  place,  now  owned  by  a  negro, 
Wade  Jackson,  who  can  point  out  the  house  site,  two  or 
three  miles  southwest  of  White  Oak. 

James  Carlisle  and  wife  are  buried  in  Winnsboro.  With 
them  came  their  seven  children:  (i)  James,  a  weaver,  buried 
at  Concord  Church.  (2)  William,  a  carpenter.  Dr.  James  H. 
Carlisle's  father,  who,  with  his  wife,  Mary  (nee  Ray),  and  an 
infant  child,  James  Henry,  is  buried  in  the  Methodist  church- 
yard at  Winnsboro.  (Note  that  Dr.  Carlisle  (1825-1909)  was 
given  exactly  the  same  name  as  his  older  brother.)  (3)  John, 
a  shoemaker,  father  of  the  late  Rev.  John  M.  Carlisle,  grand- 
father of  Revs.  J.  E.  and  M.  L.  Carlisle,  went  to  Mississippi. 
(4)  Alexander,  who  went  to  Mississippi.  (5)  Mary,  who 
went  to  Mississippi  and  married  a  Harkey.  (6  and  7)  Henry 
and  Thomas,  twins.  Thomas  went  to  Mississippi;  Henry,  a 
soldier  in  the  Seminole  War,  went  to  Texas. 

John  B.  Morrison,  Blackstock,  has  William  Carlisle's  nat- 
uralization papers,  dated  November  19,  1824.  The  oath  was 
administered  by  David  Johnston  and  the  paper  signed  by 
Samuel  W.  Yongue.  Also  William  Carlisle's  license  to  prac- 
tice medicine  under  the  Thomson  Patent;  said  hcense,  or  per- 
mit, being  dated  June  2,  1832.  Also  William  Carlisle's  diploma, 
twenty-seven  by  twenty-two  inches,  from  the  Southern  Bo- 
tanico  Medical  College,  Macon,  Ga.,  1848. 


CHAPTER  11. 
Life  Sketch  of  Dr.  Carlisle. 


CHAPTER  II. 
Life  Sketch  of  Dr.  Carlisle. 

BY  DR.  CHARLES  FORSTER  SMITH,  UNn^ERSITY  OF  WISCONSIN. 

Belief  in  dogmas  shifts  and  changes.  It  has 
been  so  from  the  beginning  and  will  be  so  to  the 
end.  What  is  religion  in  one  age  may  become  su- 
perstition in  the  next  or  a  later  age.  One  thing 
stands  through  all  the  ages:  the  lesson  of  a  life  that 
was  great  because  it  was  noble  and  sincere  and  un- 
selfish and  unsullied.  The  argument  of  such  a  life 
is  incontrovertible,  the  proof  is  irrefragable,  and  the 
influence  is  irresistible.  Good  men  accept  it  and  are 
glad;  bad  men  stand  in  awe  and  silence  before  it. 
The  men  who  lead  such  lives  are  the  real  saviors  of 
their  fellows  in  every  age.  They  are  God's  witness- 
es to  each  generation,  the  best  and  only  adequate 
testimony  of  the  working  of  God's  Spirit  in  each 
period,  and  the  milestones  that  mark  the  moral 
progress  of  men  through  time  to  eternity.  They 
keep  humanity  from  going  to  the  dogs.  It  is  not 
always  easy  to  accept  or  prove,  least  of  all  to  hold 
fast  to,  a  dogma;  but  a  good  man's  life  is  God's 
best  proof  of  himself,  if  there  is  any  proof.  God 
probably  has  not  left  himself  without  such  witness 
in  any  age.  Such  were  Confucius,  Buddha,  Socra- 
tes and  Plato,  Vergil,  Marcus  Aurelius,  Dante,  St. 

(21) 


22  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

Francis  of  Assisi,  Luther,  Wesley,  Dr.  Arnold,  Em- 
erson, Lincoln,  Lee,  and  Phillips  Brooks. ./  Perhaps 
all  earnest  men  have  known  in  life  or  in  literature 
some  such  man  who  has  been  to  them  a  stay  and  a 
safeguard.  To  me  such  a  man  was  Dr.  Carlisle, 
the  best  and  most  Christlike  man  I  have  ever  known, 
described  in  his  own  words  (but  not  used  of  him- 
self), "exacting  on  himself,  yet  lenient  to  others; 
pure,  yet  tolerant." 

James  Henry  Carlisle  was  born  at  Winnsboro,  S. 
C,  May  24,  1825.  His  father,  Dr.  William  Car- 
lisle, was  a  native  of  Ireland,  who  came  to  America 
in  1818  and  settled  in  Winnsboro.  He  married  at 
Winnsboro  his  first  wife,  a  first  cousin,  named  Mary 
Ann  Buchanan,  also  a  native  of  Ireland;  and  of 
this  union  were  born  four  children.  James  H.  was 
the  second  son.  His  mother  must  have  been  a  noble 
woman,  if  we  may  judge  by  the  son's  respect  for 
motherhood.  Living  till  1858,  she  was  blessed  in 
seeing  her  greatest  son  attain  to  the  full  maturity 
of  a  noble  manhood,  even  if  his  chief  honors  came 
in  later  years. 

Of  his  early  school  days,  one  story  that  is  authen- 
tic is  thoroughly  characteristic,  proving  the  boy  to 
be  the  father  of  the  man.  A  teacher  compelled  the 
little  boy  as  a  punishment  to  write  upon  his  slate 
"Stupid  goose"  and  show  it  around  to  the  scholars. 
"Aren't  you  ashamed  ?"  asked  the  teacher.  As  quick 
as  a  flash  the  boy  answered  without  outraged  feel- 
ings: "No,  I  am  not,  because  it  is  a  lie  !'* 


Life  Sketch  of  Dr.  Carlisle.  23 

He  was  prepared  for  college  by  James  W.  Hud- 
son, of  the  Mt.  Zion  Academy,  Winnsboro,  and  en- 
tered the  sophomore  class  in  the  South  Carolina 
College  in  1842,  having  ridden  to  Columbia  on 
horseback.  He  has  been  heard  to  say  that  he  could 
not  have  passed  an  entrance  examination,  but  natu- 
ral ability  and  diligence  enabled  him  to  win  second 
honor  in  the  class  of  1844.  The  first  honor  was 
awarded  to  Patrick  H.  Nelson,  killed  as  a  Confed- 
erate officer  in  the  battle  of  the  Crater  in  1864.  The 
subject  of  his  graduating  address  was,  "The  Charac- 
ter of  Shelley's  Writings,"  I  had  been  eager  to  read 
the  address,  for  I  was  curious  to  see  his  estimate  of 
a  poet  I  had  never  heard  him  mention.  But  even 
at  that  early  age  it  was  the  moral  character  that 
attracted — or,  as  in  Shelley's  case,  repelled — ^him, 
and  there  is  in  the  short  address  no  attempt  at  anal- 
ysis or  estimate  of  poetical  quality.  He  had  already 
become  acquainted  with  the  poet  whose  moral  and 
religious  quality  strongly  appealed  to  him.  At  four- 
teen he  carried  his  first  copy  of  Cowper  into  the  pine 
woods  and  read  it  there  with  such  satisfaction  that 
ever  afterwards  this  was  his  favorite  poet,  certainly 
oftener  quoted  by  him  than  any  other. 

Late  in  life  he  expressed  a  regret  with  which  I 
completely  sympathize.  *Tt  Is  one  of  the  regrets  of 
my  life,"  he  said,  "that  I  never  saw  the  mountains 
or  the  sea  until  I  reached  manhood.  I  feel,  on  this 
account,  that  my  life  has  been  narrowed  and  my 


24  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

imagination  made  barren.  The  biggest  tiling  of  my 
boyhood's  imagination  was  a  sand  hill." 

For  nine  years  after  graduation  he  taught  first 
in  the  Odd  Fellows*  School,  then  in  the  Columbia 
Male  Academy.  At  this  time  he  was  painfully  sen- 
sitive of  his  limitations.  "Why,  sir,"  said  he  on  one 
occasion,  "if  those  Columbia  people  had  taken  stones 
to  throw  at  me,  I  would  have  taken  to  my  heels." 
A  remark  of  his  shows  that  his  well-known  aversion 
to  money-making  was  as  strong  then  as  in  later  life. 
In  those  days  every  schoolmaster  collected  his  own 
fees ;  and  Dr.  Carlisle  said  to  Prof.  Duncan  Wallace 
fifty  years  later  that  he  felt  that,  rather  than  go  from 
patron  to  patron  requesting  the  payment  of  what 
was  due  him,  he  would  have  gone  to  work  and 
earned  it  over  again.  Perhaps  the  most  notable 
public  utterances  of  his  school-teaching  period  were 
an  address  spoken  before  the  Society  of  Missionary 
Inquiry  of  the  Presbyterian  Theological  Seminary 
at  Columbia,  published  in  the  Southern  Presbyterian 
Quarterly  Review,  and  an  article  on  the  "Essays  of 
John  Foster,"  published  in  the  Southern  Methodist 
Quarterly  Reviezv,  "a  paper  which  was  universally 
praised  and  admired  by  the  readers  of  the  Review." 
I  remember  that  when  I  entered  Wofford  he  used 
frequently  to  quote  from  John  Foster — a  habit  that 
persisted  through  life. 

In  1848  he  was  married  to  Margaret  Jane  Bryce, 
of  Columbia,  who  was  his  devoted  and  faithful  com- 
panion to  her  death,  which  occurred  in  the  Christ- 


Life  Sketch  of  Dr.  Carlisle.  25 

mas  holidays  of  1891.  If  the  examples  of  his 
mother  and  his  wife  chiefly  fostered  in  him,  as  it 
is  fair  to  infer,  the  high  and  pure  ideal  which  he 
cherished  of  woman,  then  Mrs.  Carlisle  needs  no 
further  eulogy.    "A  faithful  wife  and  mother  (tell 

A that  means  a  great  deal)  has  passed  away,  a 

woman  of  rare  usefulness  and  Christian  purity." 
So  he  wrote  of  a  good  woman  in  1888.  Of  this 
union  were  born  four  children,  two  of  whom  died 
in  infancy.  The  other  two — Sarah  Herbert  and 
James  H.,  Jr. — were  members  of  his  household  to 
the  end  of  his  life. 

He  was  elected  a  member  of  the  original  faculty 
of  Wofiord  College  at  the  Newberry  session  of  the 
South  Carolina  Conference  in  November,  1853.  "I 
had  registered  at  the  hotel,"  he  told  Dr.  S.  A.  Web- 
er, "and  was  going  upstairs  when  I  met  several 
gentlemen  coming  down.  Brother  Stacy  said  to 
me:  *I  congratulate  you.  Wofford  College  has  just 
been  organized,  and  you  have  been  elected  Professor 
of  Mathematics.*  I  was  surprised,  for  it  was  the 
first  intimation  I  had  had  of  it.  I  had  not  been  a 
candidate."  That  was  like  him.  All  the  prefer- 
ments and  honors  of  a  lifetime  came  to  him  un- 
sought, as  they  came  to  Dr.  Garland.  Dr.  Weber 
said:  "He  has  frequently  told  me  that  mathematics 
would  not  have  been  his  choice  of  a  chair  if  he  had 
been  consulted.  I  feel  sure  he  would  have  preferred 
mental  and  moral  philosophy." 

From  1854  to  1875  he  performed  the  duties  of  his 


26  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

professorship;  and  when  Dr.  Shipp  resigned  the 
presidency  of  the  college,  in  1875,  to  take  a  profes- 
sorship in  the  Theological  Department  of  Vanderbilt 
University,  Dr.  Carlisle  was  unanimously  elected  to 
succeed  him.  He  continued  to  perform  the  duties 
of  the  chair  of  mathematics  along. with  those  of 
the  presidency,  never  moving  from  his  own  profes- 
sor's residence  into  that  set  apart  for  the  President. 
In  1902  he  resigned  the  active  duties  of  the  presi- 
dency, being  succeeded  by  Dr.  Henry  Nelson  Sny- 
der, then  Professor  of  English  in  the  college,  and 
was  made  President  Emeritus.  He  had  sometime 
before  given  up  the  chair  of  mathematics  and  de- 
voted himself  to  lectures  on  morals  and  instruction 
in  the  Bible.  He  was  elected  a  member  of  the  first 
General  Conference  of  the  Southern  Methodist 
Church  to  which  laymen  were  admitted  and  was 
regularly  sent  as  a  delegate  thereafter  as  long  as  he 
would  consent  to  go.  In  1880  he  was  lay  fraternal 
messenger,  with  Dr.  Atticus  G.  Haygood,  to  the 
General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church.  In  1870  or  1871  the  honorary  degree  of 
LL.D.  was  conferred  upon  him  by  Southwestern 
University,  of  Georgetown,  Tex.  Such  are  the 
simple  annals  of  this  man  whom  everybody  now 
considers,  and  has  long  considered,  the  greatest 
South  Carolinian  of  his  day. 

"He  was,"  says  Dr.  Weber,  "frequently  asked  to 
leave  Wofford  College,  with  the  inducement  of  a 
larger  salary  and  a  wider  field.    I  know  that  he  was 


Life  Sketch  of  Dr.  Carlisle.  27 

grateful  for  such  complimentary  consideration.  We 
talked  freely  on  the  subject.  Indeed,  I  did  not  agree 
with  his  declination  in  every  instance.  But  I  very 
much  doubt  if  he  ever  seriously  considered  the  mat- 
ter of  leaving  Wofford.  He  heard  the  college  bell 
the  first  time  it  was  rung  to  call  the  faculty  and 
students  to  prayer  and  books,  and  there  has  been  a 
fascination  to  him  in  the  music  ever  since."  Of  the 
calls  referred  to  above,  I  know  of  only  one,  the  offer 
of  the  presidency  of  his  Alma  Mater,  the  University 
of  South  Carolina.  His  loyalty  to  Wofford,  like 
that  of  Mark  Hopkins  to  Williams,  has  had  few 
parallels  in  American  educational  history.  Presi- 
dent Snyder  says  that  when  he  himself  was  consid- 
ering a  call  to  leave  Wofford,  Dr.  Carlisle  said: 
"You  will  have  to  decide  this  for  yourself.  Your 
friends  cannot  help  you.  I  can  only  tell  you  I  have 
found  this  a  wide  enough  field."  This  feeling  was 
partly  due  to  his  conviction  that  as  personal  contact 
with,  and  direct  influence  upon,  the  individual  stu- 
dent are  all-important,  so  the  small  college  has  a 
mission  which  no  big  university  can  perform. 

Dr.  Carlisle  was  a  man  of  commanding  appear- 
ance and  would  at  once  attract  attention  in  any 
crowd.  When  he  entered  the  General  Conference 
at  Atlanta,  Dr.  Cunnyngham,  who  had  never  seen 
him  before,  remarked:  "There's  a  man!"  He  was 
six  feet  four  inches  in  height  and  weighed  about 
one  hundred  and  ninety  pounds.  His  head  was  un- 
usually large,  or  rather  long,  so  that  it  was  often 


28  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

difficult  to  get  a  hat  (it  must  have  been  at  least  an 
eight)  to  fit  him.  His  hair  and  beard  were  dark ;  the 
former  worn  moderately  long,  the  latter  full,  but 
never  long.  His  eyes  were  gray-blue  and  his  most 
striking  feature,  bright  and  ordinarily  calm  and 
gentle,  but  brilliant  when  he  was  thoroughly  aroused. 
His  movements,  as  natural  and  dignified  as  his  form 
was  stately,  on  great  occasions  seemed  majestic, 
though  all  unconsciously  so. 

The  house  in  which  he  lived  for  fifty-five  years, 
a  residence  on  the  campus  provided  by  the  college, 
was  a  two-story  brick  building  of  eight  or  nine  large 
rooms,  with  a  kitchen  and  servants*  rooms  in  the 
rear.  In  front  was  the  campus,  with  its  grove  of 
pines.  The  vine-covered  porch  was  the  place  where 
most  visitors  were  received  in  mild  weather,  which 
in  that  region  meant  most  of  the  year.  The  chairs 
on  the  porch  were  of  the  simplest  character.  In- 
deed, simplicity  characterized  the  man  and  all  his 
surroundings.  I  never  knew  any  man  of  his  emi- 
nence to  live  so  unostentatiously.  The  furniture  of 
the  whole  house  was  comfortable;  nothing  more. 
The  room  most  associated  with  him  in  the  memory 
of  visitors  was  his  study,  whose  walls  were  lined 
with  plain  dark-pine  bookshelves  reaching  from  the 
floor  to  the  ceiling,  so  high  that  even  a  tall  man 
needed  a  stepladder  for  the  top  shelves.  A  pine 
table  with  a  cloth  cover  was  the  desk,  and  plain 
wooden-bottomed  armchairs  (his  own  with  a  home- 
made cushion),  a  rocking-chair  or  two,  and  a  sofa 


Life  Sketch  of  Dr.  Carlisle.  29 

constituted  the  other  furniture.  The  pictures  were 
mostly  likenesses  of  notable  men,  and  the  bric-a- 
brac  chiefly  historical  or  family  mementos.  A 
room  in  the  college  library  is  now  fitted  up  with  his 
books  and  furniture  so  as  to  be  a  perfect  facsimile 
of  it. 

He  was  a  great  reader,  with  the  gift  of  photo- 
graphing a  paragraph  at  a  glance,  quickly  absorbing 
the  contents  without  consciously  reading  every  word. 
Among  Dr.  Carlisle's  books,  Bishop  Mouzon,  who 
delights  to  confess  that  Dr.  Carlisle  made  him,  men- 
tions as  also  his  own  inspiration  in  literature  the 
works  of  F.  W.  Robertson,  Dr.  Bushnell,  and  Phil- 
lips Brooks.  These,  I  remember,  were  among 
those  oftenest  quoted  by  Dr.  Carlisle.  To  these 
may  be  added  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  Stanley's 
"Arnold"  and  "Jewish  History,"  Cowper,  and  in 
late  years  Vinet  and  Dr.  Alexander  Maclaren.  This 
communion  with  choice  spirits  he  enjoyed  as  few 
men  can  and  must  often  have  been  bored  by  callers. 
But  he  was  always  approachable  and  even  affable, 
accommodating  himself  to  his  company,  talking  in 
the  simplest  manner  about  common  acquaintances 
or  general  topics  with  those  whose  horizon  was 
limited,  but  easily  led  by  others  of  wider  range 
farther  afield.  And  here  he  took  usually  the  Socrat- 
ic  attitude  of  the  inquirer  who  would  learn  from 
his  interlocutor,  only  never  with  Socratic  irony; 
and  when  he  talked  best  you  could  be  sure  it  was 
never  for  display.     His  conversation  was  the  best 


30  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

thing  about  him,  really  the  greatest  thing  he  ever 
did,  except  his  classroom  talks  and  an  occasional 
great  speech,  though  doubtless  he  was  never  aware 
of  it. 

He  played  no  games,  was  not  fond  of  gardening, 
and  took  no  systematic  exercise.  I  never  knew  of 
his  taking  a  long  walk  over  the  hills  or  through  the 
woods.  But  he  liked  to  walk  down  town  (three- 
quarters  of  a  mile),  after  college  exercises  in  the 
afternoon,  to  the  post  office  and  the  bookstore ;  and 
as  he  walked  with  long,  measured  tread  he  would 
utter  reflections  about  men  and  books  and  events 
that  would  now  be  intensely  interesting  if  one  could 
only  recall  them.  Professor  Lester,  the  youngest  of 
his  colleagues  in  the  earlier  period,  used  to  be  his 
companion  on  these  downtown  strolls,  because  he 
lived  halfway;  and  after  he  was  gone  I  succeeded, 
for  the  same  reason,  to  this  enviable  privilege  for 
my  brief  stay  of  four  years.  Prof.  D.  A.  DuPre 
was  probably  most  with  him  in  the  years  after  1879. 
That  amount  of  exercise  would  not  have  sufficed 
for  most  people  whose  brains  were  in  such  constant 
use;  but  he  was  much  in  the  fresh  air,  if  only  sit- 
ting on  the  front  porch,  and  his  life  was  so  equable 
and  unhurried,  his  habits  so  regular,  that  he  was 
never  troubled  with  indigestion  and  regularly  slept 
well. 

A  striking  parallel  might  be  drawn  between  Dr. 
Carlisle  and  the  greatest  of  Greek  teachers.  Soc- 
rates was  completely  above  the  temptation  of  money 


Life  Sketch  of  Dr.  Carlisle.  31 

and  indifferent  to  worldly  honors  and  preferments; 
took  no  part  in  public  affairs,  except  when  drawn  by 
lot  for  office  or  drafted  for  service  as  a  soldier; 
never  left  Athens,  except  on  military  duty;  was 
notably  abstemious  and  completely  master  of  his 
appetites ;  wrote  nothing,  but  communicated  his  ideas 
directly  to  the  young  men  about  him,  content  to 
leave  the  seed  thus  sown  to  germinate  in  the  fruitful 
soil  of  human  souls.  So  Dr.  Carlisle  cared  less  for 
dollars  and  what  they  would  buy  than  any  man  I 
ever  knew.  It  has  been  mentioned  above  that  he 
put  aside  at  once  and  peremptorily  the  suggestion 
of  further  political  service  when  waited  on  by  some 
of  his  fellow  citizens,  though  this  doubtless  looked 
to  the  House  of  Representatives  at  Washington  and 
eventually  the  United  States  Senate.  He  rarely  left 
Spartanburg,  partly  because  seasickness  made  travel 
on  the  cars  a  torture,  but  also  because  he  was  re- 
tiring and  averse  even  to  the  applause  of  admiring 
audiences.  "What  is  a  man  to  do  under  such  con- 
ditions ?"  he  once  asked  Dr.  Baer,  after  some  lady's 
lavish  compliments.  "Just  look  like  a  fool  and  say 
nothing,  as  you  did,"  replied  Dr.  Baer.  He  had 
his  bodily  faculties  under  such  discipline  that  no- 
body ever  thought  of  him  as  being  tempted  like  ordi- 
nary mortals.  He  wrote  a  good  deal,  but  only  short 
articles,  in  response  to  the  insistent  demands  of  the 
religious  periodical  press.  He  wrote  no  books.  He 
was,  however,  always  unconsciously  teaching  like 
Socrates,  pouring  his  thoughts  into  the  eager  minds 


32  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

of  young  disciples.  And  this  has  brought  forth 
the  most  diverse  fruit,  both  intellectual  and  spirit- 
ual. Socrates's  constant  plea  to  his  fellow  citizens 
was:  "O,  best  of  men,  dwellers  in  Athens,  a  city 
the  greatest  and  most  famous  for  wisdom  and  pow- 
er, are  you  not  ashamed  to  care  for  money,  that  you 
may  have  as  much  as  possible,  and  for  reputation 
and  honor?  But  for  sanity  and  truth  and  your 
soul,  how  it  shall  be  as  good  as  possible,  you  take 
neither  care  nor  thought."  This  appeal  really  ex- 
pressed the  essence  of  all  Dr.  Carlisle's  teaching; 
and  yet  I  think  he  was  in  this  not  consciously  imi- 
tating or  even  influenced  by  Socrates.  He  would 
surely  have  made  frequent  reference  to  Socrates  if 
he  had  read  Plato  much.  The  similarity  of  life  and 
conduct  was  doubtless  accidental. 

Dr.  Carlisle  was  like  Dr.  Mark  Hopkins  in  work- 
ing more  than  fifty  years  in  one  small  college,  in  that 
being  a  great  moral  force  he  spent  himself  entirely 
in  influencing  men,  and  in  that  he  emphasized  above 
all  the  power  of  personal  influence  in  inducing  young 
men  both  to  study  books  and  to  lead  better  lives. 
But  his  great  exemplar,  whom  he  followed  more  or 
less  consciously,  was  Dr.  Arnold,  of  Rugby.  Say- 
ings of  Arnold  adorned  the  walls  of  his  recitation 
room,  and  I  have  heard  Arnold's  name  on  his  lips 
oftener  than  that  of  any  other  teacher.  He  pre- 
pared an  abridged  edition  of  Stanley's  "Arnold"  for 
the  Chautauqua  Press,  saying  in  the  introduction: 
"It  is  an  era  in  the  history  of  any  young  teacher 


Life  Sketch  of  Dr.  Carlisle.  33 

when  he  becomes  familiar  with  the  *Life  of  Thomas 
Arnold.* "  If  he  had  ever  gone  to  England,  I  am 
sure  he  would  have  sought,  above  all  other  spots, 
the  grave  of  the  greatest  of  English  teachers,  as 
Bishop  McDowell  did,  and  would  have  wished,  like 
the  Bishop,  to  be  alone,  that  he  might  do  homage 
with  his  tears  to  a  kindred  spirit.  In  another  par- 
ticular he  was  like  Dr.  Arnold.  Senator  Smith,  of 
South  Carolina,  says: 

Dr.  Carlisle  differed  from  other  educators  in  one  respect: 
he  never  seemed  to  desire  that  we  should  at  any  cost  be- 
come scholars,  but  that  at  any  cost  we  should  do  our  duty, 
meet  the  obligations  that  come  to  us  as  men.  Then,  if 
scholarship  was  the  result,  well  and  good;  but  if  not,  there 
were  to  be  no  regrets,  provided  we  had  faithfully  and  hon- 
estly and  to  the  fullest  possible  extent  met  the  obligations  of 
student  life.  His  respect  for  the  honest,  plodding  mediocre 
was  as  profound  and  real  as  for  the  most  brilliant  student, 
provided  both  did  their  duty. 

That  reminds  me  how  often  I  have  heard  him  cite 
the  incident  in  Dr.  Arnold's  life  of  the  youth  who 
said  to  him,  "Why  do  you  speak  angrily,  sir?  In- 
deed, I  have  done  the  best  I  could,"  and  Dr.  Ar- 
nold's comment,  "I  could  stand  hat  in  hand  before 
that  man." 

As  a  public  speaker  Dr.  Carlisle  had  extraordi- 
nary gifts.  Associate  Justice  Woods,  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  South  Carolina,  after  mentioning 
character  and  profound  moral  optimism  as  sources 
of  his  power,  says: 

3 


34  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

The  third  element  was  eloquence.  I  do  not  mean  by  elo- 
quence merely  brilliant  expression,  polished  gesture,  rounded 
periods,  or  artistic  polish.  Some  of  these  he  had  without 
effort.  But  if  speech  be  eloquence  which  moves  the  emotions 
too  deeply  to  admit  of  outward  demonstration,  which  carries 
conviction  and  arouses  the  whole  man  to  the  best  aspirations 
and  the  most  solemn  of  resolutions,  then  he  was  eloquent.  .  .  . 
He  spoke  from  a  luminous  mind  and  pure  heart  in  that 
strong  and  simple  English  of  which  he  was  a  master,  of  the 
deep  principles  of  life  and  character,  and  made  these  princi- 
ples vital  with  his  own  powerful  conviction  of  the  soul's 
perils,  aspirations,  and  possibilities.  And  he  who  could  listen 
and  not  feel  that  he  was  under  the  influence  of  a  gfreat  human 
power  was  indeed  poor  in  spirit. 

At  Spartanburg  he  was  for  fifty  years  the  speaker 
whom  everybody  liked  to  hear.  His  audiences  were 
always  larger  than  noted  orators  from  elsewhere 
could  attract,  and  I  never  knew  any  one  to  think 
him  uninteresting  or  find  any  speech  of  his  tire- 
some. He  never  told  stories  or  anecdotes  in  his 
speeches  to  catch  or  hold  the  attention  of  his  audi- 
ence, and  there  was  never  a  word  that  the  most  re- 
fined woman  might  not  have  heard  without  a  blush. 
Some  of  us  used  to  say  that  the  man  behind  it  made 
so  impressive  what  he  said.  In  the  long  run  that 
is  probably  always  true — an  utterance  is  worth 
something  just  in  proportion  to  the  worth  of  the 
man  behind  it. 

If  readers  who  were  never  students  of  Dr.  Car- 
lisle's should  feel  disappointment  in  his  published 
addresses,  we  who  knew  him  would  think  of  his 
own  remark  about  a  speech  by  William  C.  Preston: 


Life  Sketch  of  Dr.  Carlisle.  35 

"It  was  oratory ;  but  its  publication,  stripped  of  his 
delivery,  would  not  have  added  to  his  reputation." 
The  best  is  lost,  but  we  are  glad  of  what  remains. 
That  is  true  also  of  one  of  the  most  effective  short 
speeches  of  his  life,  his  salutation  to  President  Eliot 
when  he  visited  Wofford  in  1909.  I  cannot  repro- 
duce the  scene  nor  the  men  nor  the  Doctor's  inimi- 
table manner;  but  the  situation  was  this:  "When  I 
was  a  little  boy  wading  through  the  dismal  swamp  of 
the  multiplication  table,  you  were  a  babe  in  arms. 
Rejoice,  O  young  man,  in  thy  strength !" 

He  was  not  a  great  college  executive  or  business 
head.  As  he  had  no  gift  for  getting,  hoarding,  or 
turning  over  money  for  himself,  so  he  did  not  try  to 
get  money  for  the  college,  either  from  rich  men  or 
from  mass  meetings  of  the  people,  and  he  left  the 
management  of  college  money  matters  entirely  to 
the  Board  of  Trustees  and  to  the  financial  officers. 
To  the  same  hands  he  left  the  construction  of  new 
buildings  and  material  advancement  generally.  He 
did  not  share  the  American  craze  for  numbers  and 
did  not  believe  the  best  results  could  be  produced, 
either  intellectually  or  morally,  with  very  large  num- 
bers. He  used  to  say,  in  fact:  "When  two  hundred 
and  fifty  students  enter  the  front  door  of  the  college, 
I  go  out  at  the  back." 

It  was,  then,  as  a  teacher  and  molder  of  men  and 
not  as  an  executive  that  he  was  great.  The  presi- 
dency helped  him  only  in  leaving  him  freer  in  taking 
the  initiative  and  directing  the  current  of  college 


36  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

life  according  to  his  individual  preferences  and 
ideals.  And  here  his  weak  points  may  be  admitted 
before  his  strong  ones  are  stated.  Strictly  speaking, 
he  was  not  a  scholar  in  any  line,  certainly  not  in  his 
specialty;  and  probably  none  of  his  best  students 
ever  considered  him  a  fine  drillmaster  in  mathe- 
matics or  a  maker  of  mathematicians  or  an  authority 
on  that  subject.  Young  preachers  and  lawyers  and 
men  in  public  life  and  all  others  who  might  be  es- 
pecially concerned  about  public  and  private  morals 
had  more  reason  to  be  grateful  to  him  than  those 
who  later  occupied  chairs  of  mathematics  or  physics 
or  astronomy.  So  it  happened,  then,  that,  no  matter 
who  heard  the  lessons  or  gave  the  lectures  in  moral 
philosophy  at  Wofford  College,  the  real  source  and 
stirrer  and  arbiter  of  moral  ideas  there  for  the  first 
half  century  was  Dr.  Carlisle.  And  it  was  a  very 
wise  move  when,  sometime  in  the  nineties,  he  was 
relieved  entirely  of  mathematics  and  put  in  charge 
of  ethical  instruction.  Even  in  the  matter  of  moral 
education  it  was  sometimes  felt  and  even  said  that 
boys  at  Wofford  were  coddled  too  much — ^kept,  as  it 
were,  in  a  hotbed  and  so  in  danger  of  a  rude  awak- 
ening when  thrown  out  into  the  world  of  men — that 
ideas  as  to  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  as  to  youth- 
ful amusements,  such  as  dancing  and  card-playing, 
the  theater  and  opera,  were  too  strict ;  so  that  when 
men  came  to  think  and  act  for  themselves  they  might 
undergo  a  sort  of  revulsion  of  feeling  and  fly  to  the 
other  extreme.    There  was  something  in  this ;  such 


Life  Sketch  of  Dr.  Carlisle.  2>7 

effects  did  sometimes  occur.  But,  on  the  whole,  the 
balance  was  immensely  in  favor  of  the  Doctor's 
moral  teachings.  Such  criticisms  were  made  by 
younger  men  oftener  than  by  older.  As  men  were 
buffeted  about  by  the  waves  in  the  sea  of  business 
and  public  affairs,  they  found  the  essential  doctrines 
and  principles  inculcated  in  Dr.  Carlisle's  lectures, 
and  especially  by  his  conduct,  the  best  ballast  for 
the  voyage  of  life. 

The  hard  part  comes  now,  to  attempt  to  state  with 
any  adequacy  his  strong  points  as  teacher  and  head 
of  the  college.  He  was  strong  after  the  Dr.  Arnold 
and  Dr.  Hopkins  type — that  is,  he  regarded  the 
chief  work  of  he  head  of  the  college  to  be  the 
making  of  men,  the  development  of  immature 
youths  into  capable,  honest,  high-minded,  patriotic 
citizens  and  Christians.  His  talks  about  money — 
and  they  were  frequent — were  apt  to  be  full  of 
warnings  about  the  danger  from  covetousness  and 
the  misuse  of  money.  He  laid  great  stress  upon 
honorable  success  in  life,  kept  the  students  posted  as 
to  the  intellectual  and  material  achievements  of 
alumni,  and  stimulated  them  by  constant  reminders 
of  the  great  things  done  by  the  best  and  ablest  men 
of  every  race  and  age.  The  lessons  of  men's  lives — 
biography — were  his  favorite  means  of  incitement 
to  virtue.  He  wanted  the  college  to  be  good,  not 
big;  a  safe  and  wholesome  and  uplifting  place  for 
ambitious  youths  to  work  and  grow  in,  not  a  gath- 
ering place  for  hordes  of  all  sorts  of  young  fellows 


38  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

sent  thither  by  parents  or  drifting  there  to  have  a 
good  time. 

To  me  Dr.  Cariisle  was  the  great  moral  teacher 
and  molder  of  men's  characters.  I  knew  him  forty 
years — four  years  as  a  pupil  of  his,  later  for  four 
years  as  his  young  colleague,  and  all  the  rest  of  the 
time  as  his  friend.  In  dedicating  to  him  a  recent 
volume  of  essays  I  used  the  words,  "The  best  man 
I  have  ever  known  and  the  most  potent  human  in- 
fluence in  my  life."  Justice  Woods,  commenting 
on  this,  said:  "It  would  not  be  remarkable  that  one 
man  should  say  that  of  another  if  it  were  not  true 
that  these  words  would  be  accepted  by  many  others 
as  expressing  their  own  estimate."  I  repeat  that  he 
was  the  best  man  I  have  ever  known  in  the  flesh, 
the  most  unselfish,  the  freest  from  love  of  money, 
the  purest  in  thought  and  word  and  deed,  the  most 
exemplary  in  conduct.  If  I  add  that  he  was  also 
wise,  self-controlled,  slow  to  anger,  modest,  patient, 
courteous,  kindly,  gentle,  tolerant,  loving  his  neigh- 
bor as  himself,  I  am  aware  that  I  have  almost  ex- 
hausted the  vocabulary  of  good  qualities.  But  I 
have  only  told  the  truth.  I  have  known  him  to  make 
mistakes,  but  they  were  errors  of  judgment  and  not 
of  will;  he  always  meant  to  do  right.  He  was  the 
only  man  I  have  ever  known  with  whose  motives  I 
could  never  find  any  fault.  President  Snyder  recalls 
that,  when  he  was  going  to  Woff ord  in  1 888,  I  said 
to  him  of  Dr.  Carlisle:  "He  is  more  of  a  New  Tes- 
tament man  than  any  one  I  have  ever  known."    I 


Life  Sketch  of  Dr.  Carlisle.  39 

said  thirty  years  ago  that  if  I  knew  Dr.  Carlisle 
would  not  get  to  heaven  I  would  give  myself  no 
further  concern  about  the  matter.  I  say  that  still. 
I  knew  then,  and  I  know  now,  that  such  a  sentiment 
is  exaggerated ;  but  it  was  and  is  my  estimate  of  the 
man's  moral  soundness  and  goodness.  And  I  am 
glad  that  I  have  felt  thus  about  a  man.  It  has  up- 
lifted me,  has  been  a  stay  and  a  safeguard.  His 
life  has  always  been  to  me  the  unanswerable  argu- 
ment for  a  belief  in  the  Christian  religion.  If  we 
live  long  with  a  Christlike  man  and  he  stands  the 
test  all  the  time,  day  in  and  day  out,  it  becomes 
much  easier  to  believe  in  a  Christlike  God.  My 
experience  is  probably  not  at  all  unique.  A  college 
senior  at  the  time  of  his  death  wrote:  "Those  who 
sat  in  his  classroom  had  the  blessed  privilege  of 
partaking  of  the  very  nature  of  the  Christ."  Most 
men  are  really  tremendously  concerned  about  the 
Christian  religion,  however  it  may  seem  to  the 
contrary.  They  do  not  so  much  want  to  hear  it 
preached  as  to  see  it  lived.  They  want  proofs  of  its 
claims;  and  lives  are  the  best  proofs.  A  great  life 
that  is  an  epistle  read  of  all  men  is  an  inestimable 
boon  to  humanity.  The  men  of  whom  we  can  say, 
as  the  pupil  of  Socrates  said  of  his  great  master, 
"The  best  man  we  have  ever  known  and  the  wisest 
and  the  justest" — these  are  the  men  that  save  us. 

I  have  never  known  a  man  anywhere  so  looked 
up  to  and  reverenced  by  men  and  women  and  chil- 
dren as  Dr.  Carlisle  was;  never  a  man  whom  his 


40  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

students  so  nearly  worshiped  while  directly  under 
his  influence,  still  more  as  they  grew  older  and  real- 
ized the  value  of  such  an  example.  One  senior  said 
as  he  lay  dead:  "He  was  our  Dr.  Carlisle,  and  we 
loved  him."  Another:  "Tread  softly,  fellow  stu- 
dents, for  every  inch  of  Wofford's  campus  is  now 
hallowed  ground."  It  is  an  everlasting  pity  that 
every  young  man  who  goes  to  college  does  not  at 
that  impressionable  period  come  under  the  domina- 
tion of  some  man  of  great  personality  and  wise  char- 
acter. Happy  are  those — and  they  were  nearly  all 
the  Wofford  students  for  fifty  years — who  found  in 
Dr.  Carlisle  such  a  mentor.  "He  had  a  personal 
interest,"  says  Justice  Woods,  "in  every  college 
student  he  knew  and  had  the  rare  power  of  inspir- 
ing awe  and  affection  at  the  same  time.  He  always 
remembered  the  men  who  had  been  at  Wofford 
College  and  so  watched  their  careers  in  college  and 
in  after  life  that  he  made  every  man  know  that  he 
was  expecting  of  him  the  best  achievement  of  which 
he  was  capable,"  Senator  Smith  meant  much  the 
same  thing  when  he  said:  "I  am  sure  that  one  char- 
acteristic of  Dr.  Carlisle's  that  drew  him  closer  to 
the  student  body  than  anything  else  was  his  great 
yearning  that  the  boy  at  college  for  the  first  time 
should  not  disappoint  the  mother  and  father  at 
home,  making  such  sacrifices,  hoping  such  hopes, 
and  dreaming  such  dreams  for  their  boy.  He  could 
come  nearer  voicing  that  yearning  and  standing  in 
the  parents*  stead  than  any  teacher  it  has  ever  been 


Life  Sketch  of  Dr.  Carlisle.  41 

my  fortune  to  meet."  No  wonder  that  the  Senator 
added:  "I  have  felt  the  same  desire  to  go  back  to 
Dr.  Carlisle  and  carry  what  little  trophies  I  have 
won  and  lay  them  at  his  feet  as  a  tribute  to  what 
he  has  done  for  me  and  hoped  for  me  that  I  have 
felt  in  taking  them  back  to  my  mother." 

Dr.  Carlisle's  chief  means  of  contact  with  the 
students  for  purposes  of  moral  influence  were,  first, 
his  classroom  talks,  not  less  in  the  regular  mathe- 
matical hours  than  in  the  Monday  Bible  lesson  with 
the  juniors ;  secondly,  his  Sunday  afternoon  optional 
class  meetings  for  young  men  at  the  Methodist 
church;  thirdly,  impromptu  short  talks  at  morning 
chapel  as  President;  and,  finally,  interviews  with 
individual  students  in  his  study.  His  classroom 
talks  have  already  been  touched  upon.  The  Sunday 
afternoon  meeting  deserves  somewhat  fuller  men- 
tion. Four  o'clock  was  the  hour ;  and  though  purely 
voluntary,  it  was  regularly  attended  by  a  very  large 
proportion  of  the  students,  so  large  that  any  ordi- 
nary room  was  inadequate.  Prof.  Warren  Du  Pre 
had  at  his  residence  at  the  same  hour  a  similar  meet- 
ing for  the  young  women  of  the  church  and  town. 
Dr.  Carlisle  used  to  discuss  at  first  some  lesson  of 
Scripture  very  much  after  the  manner  of  a  Sunday 
school  lecture ;  then  opportunity  was  offered  to  the 
students  to  give  personal  expression  to  any  feeling 
that  might  weigh  upon  heart  or  conscience.  It  was 
much  like  a  Methodist  class  meeting,  only  the  young 
men  were  not  called  out,  and  the  talks  were  perhaps 


42  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

more  spontaneous  and  informal.  The  chief  occa- 
sion of  the  kind  was  the  last  Sunday  afternoon  of 
the  college  year,  when  the  members  of  the  graduat- 
ing class  were  expected  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
opportunity  to  speak  a  word  to  their  fellows.  Those 
Sunday  afternoons  of  Dr.  Carlisle's  class  seem  to 
me  now,  as  they  did  then,  the  best  single  religious 
influence  of  the  college  course. 

For  the  short  chapel  talks  at  morning  prayers 
there  was  no  special  day  set  apart.  They  might 
come  at  any  time.  If  some  former  student  had  won 
some  prize  or  special  distinction  in  university  work, 
the  Doctor  was  apt  to  make  allusion  thereto  before 
the  students — e.  g.,  Dr.  Kirkland  recalls  how  he 
referred  to  the  winning  of  a  medal  at  Vanderbilt 

University  by and  added  that  "no  more  such 

mentions  would  be  made,  it  would  be  assumed  that 
Wofford  men  would  take  all  prizes  thus  offered.'* 
Dr.  Duncan  Wallace,  for  four  years  a  pupil  and 
later  a  colleague  of  Dr.  Carlisle's,  thus  vividly  de- 
scribes the  effects  of  such  college  talks: 

In  the  short  talks  which  he  frequently  addressed  to  the  en- 
tire student  body  at  the  morning  chapel  services  on  the  occa- 
sion of  some  great  man's  birthday,  some  great  event  in  the 
world,  some  awful  tragedy  recounted  in  the  daily  press  in  the 
life  of  a  young  man,  or  simply  because  the  impulse  was  upon 
him,  he  was  unapproachable.  After  listening  as  a  member 
of  the  faculty  in  rapt  attention  and  delight  to  such  words,  I 
have  heard  middle-aged  colleagues  who  had  heard  him  for 
many  years  exclaim  that  no  other  man  could  ever  put  such 
power  into  such  words. 

One  occasion  that  will  never  be  forgotten  was  a  certain 


Life  Sketch  of  Dr.  Carlisle.  43 

morning  on  which  a  great  moral  question — the  eternal  ques- 
tion of  the  young  man  and  the  strange  woman — demanded 
strong  speech.  He  requested  his  colleagues  to  leave  the  chapel, 
a  request  which  I  never  knew  him  to  make  except  on  that 
occasion.  He  was,  it  chanced,  in  bodily  weakness  and  seated 
himself  upon  the  rostrum  in  a  chair.  On  such  occasions  the 
accidental  surroundings  of  time  and  place  seemed  to  sink 
away;  classmates  were  no  longer  perceived;  each  student 
seemed  to  himself  to  be  alone  with  the  man  at  the  other  end 
of  his  range  of  vision ;  the  moments  were  intense,  and  it  was 
a  relief  to  the  overwrought  faculties  when  one  was  free  to 
seek  the  open  air. 

Finally,  the  chief  avenue  of  approach  to  the  stu- 
dent's soul,  the  most  characteristic  way  of  showing 
his  interest  in  his  spiritual  welfare,  was  his  habit  of 
asking  each  one  sometime  in  his  college  course  to 
come  to  his  study  at  a  certain  hour.  There  he  talked 
with  the  young  man,  presumably  about  his  soul's 
welfare  and  his  aims  in  life ;  but  the  student  always 
felt  that  the  hour  had  been  too  sacred  to  reveal  what 
had  passed.  Alluding  to  such  an  interview.  Dr. 
Weber  wrote  me:  "How  many  of  us  boys  of  his  to 
the  last  days  of  our  lives  thank  and  bless  him  for 
his  personal  work !  Just  now  I  am  having  thoughts 
too  sacred  for  utterance.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  I 
remember,  more  than  half  a  century  ago,  when,  to 
adopt  his  own  way  of  expressing  it  in  his  own  study 
with  only  us  two  present,  I  was  enabled  to  pass  a 
crisis  in  my  life  on  upgrade.** 

If  you  understand  that  a  whole  college  felt  as  Dr. 
Weber  did,  not  one  or  several  generations,  but  all 
the  generations  of  college  students  for  fifty  years. 


44  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

and  so  all  the  alumni  of  the  college  for  all  that  time, 
that  the  whole  town  felt  so  and  the  whole  State, 
you  realize  something  of  the  influence  of  the  man 
and  of  his  enormous  power  for  good.  But  you 
could  never  understand  the  secret  of  that  influence 
and  that  power  unless  you  had  seen  that  life  lived. 
Then  you  would  understand,  though  you  might  not 
be  able  to  explain  it  to  others.  When  you  tried  to 
explain  it  to  one  who  did  not  know  the  man,  you 
would  probably  give  it  up  and  say:  "Well,  anyway, 
it  is  a  fact." 

Perhaps  a  characteristic,  authentic  anecdote  or 
two  may  give  the  secret  of  his  power  with  young 
men  better  than  formal  accounts  of  his  usual  meth- 
ods of  instruction.  The  Doctor  could  be  very  se- 
vere when  the  occasion  seemed  to  demand  severity, 
and  there  was  never  a  student  that  did  not  fear  him 
and  stand  in  awe  of  his  righteous  indignation.  But, 
as  Mr.  Wallace  says: 

The  Doctor's  magnanimity  was  always  more  than  equal  to 
his  severity.  The  following  incident  from  about  1880  was  a 
painful  humiliation  to  him,  but  it  elevated  him  in  the  eyes  of 
his  class.  After  the  calling  of  the  roll,  he  had  requested  the 
class  to  close  their  books  and  had  begun  the  recitation.  Soon 
he  noticed  a  student  in  the  back  of  the  room  reading  his  text- 
book. It  looked  mean.  It  appeared  a  clear  unmitigated  case 
of  cheating.  The  Doctor  delivered  to  the  student  a  terrible 
reprimand.  Then  he  paused.  The  oflFending  student  said 
quietly :  "Doctor,  I  did  not  hear  you  say,  'Close  your  books.' " 
It  was  like  a  blow.  The  man  of  large  heart  attempted  no 
explanation  or  excuse,  but  rose  from  his  chair,  walked  the 
length  of  the  room  with  extended  hand,  and  grasped  the  hand 


Life  Sketch  of  Dr.  Carlisle.  45 

of  the  student  with  the  words :  "Mr. ,  I  beg  your  pardon. 

I  beg  your  pardon." 

To  illustrate  the  Doctor's  humor,  Dr.  Wallace 
tells  the  following  anecdote: 

There  was  a  very  young  but  extremely  dignified  professor 
recently  returned  from  Germany.  To  the  disgust  of  the  boys, 
he  had  introduced  the  study  of  Anglo-Saxon,  a  subject  in 
which  he  afterwards  obtained  some  distinction.  One  of  the 
students  gained  access  to  his  classroom  and  wrote  upon  the 
board  an  excellent  piece  of  rhyming  wit  at  the  expense  of 
German  scholarship  and  its  local  representative.  The  offender 
confessed  and,  at  the  instance  of  the  professor,  was  summoned 
before  the  faculty.  The  President  wore  his  severest  expres- 
sion and  forced  his  index  finger,  against  which  his  face 
rested,  to  an  unusual  height  along  his  temple — always  regard- 
ed by  the  boys  as  a  sure  register  of  the  gravity  of  the  occa- 
sion— as  he  asked :  "Well,  Mr.  K ,  what  are  you  summoned 

before  the  faculty  for?"    With  a  gesture  of  helpless  innocence 
and  a  voice  full  of  pathos,  of  which  he  is  a  master  to  this 

day,  K answered:  "For  writin'  po-er-try,  Doctor."    The 

Doctor  burst  into  a  laugh  and  dismissed  the  case  without 
further  inquiry. 

Perhaps  the  two  occasions  in  his  long  life  that 
were  most  honorable  to  him  and  for  which  he  was 
doubtless  most  humbly  grateful  were  the  following, 
as  told  by  Dr.  Wallace: 

The  most  affecting  incident  ever  witnessed  in  the  college 
chapel  was  at  the  commencement  exercises  in  1895,  when  Hon. 
Samuel  Dibble,  the  first  graduate  of  the  college,  unexpectedly, 
except  to  the  alumni,  stepped  upon  the  rostrum  to  present  to 
Dr.  Carlisle  a  handsome  gold  watch  and  chain,  the  gift  of 
the  alumni  in  attendance.  The  recollections  which  crowded 
upon  the  speaker  as  he  voiced  his  peculiarly  fitting  senti- 
ments almost  incapacitated  him  for  speech.    Dr.  Carlisle  was 


46  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. ' 

even  more  visibly  moved.  "Can  this  be  the  young  student  and 
this  the  young  professor  of  fifty  years  ago?"  he  asked.  He 
expressed  his  gratitude  for  the  feelings  which  had  prompted 
the  act  of  his  old  pupils  and  professed  his  unworthiness  of 
such  devotion.  He  said  that  there  and  then  he  wished  to 
beg  the  pardon  of  any  student  to  whom  he  had  ever  been 
unjust  But  his  words  were  few  in  accordance  with  his  re- 
mark on  another  such  occasion  when  the  students  presented 
him  with  a  token  of  their  affectionate  regard,  that  "one  who 
could  fittingly  respond  on  such  an  occasion  would  be  unworthy 
of  the  occasion." 

An  incident  springing  from  similar  sentiments  and  illus- 
trating the  feeling  of  the  people  of  his  home  town  toward  him 
occurred  on  his  seventy-ninth  birthday.  About  two  hundred 
of  the  professional  and  business  men  of  Spartanburg  on  the 
afternoon  of  March  4,  1904,  marched  in  a  body  to  the  Doctor's 
residence  on  the  campus  and  expressed,  through  Mr.  Stobo 
J.  Simpson,  their  veneration  and  affection  for  the  man,  the 
teacher,  the  citizen  whose  life  had  done  so  much  for  them  and 
their  community. 

The  editor  of  the  World's  Work  seems  to  have 
got  completely  the  Spartanburg  view  of  the  man. 
Under  the  caption  "A  Little  Story  of  a  Teacher,'* 
he  wrote  in  October,  1908: 

If  you  wer6  to  go  to  Spartanburg,  S.  C,  and  spend  an 
evening  in  the  home  of  any  man  who  lives  there,  the  conver- 
sation would  be  sure  to  turn  on  Dr.  Carlisle.  And  if  you 
should  happen  to  go  up  to  the  home  of  any  one  who  has  a 
direct  personal  interest  in  Wofford  College,  the  chances  are 
that  the  most  of  the  talk  of  the  evening  would  be  about  Dr. 
Carlisle.  If  you  should  happen  to  be  at  the  college  at-  com- 
mencement time,  you  would  hear  a  reverent  and  affectionate 
allusion  to  Dr.  Carlisle  in  every  public  address.    .    .    . 

And  who  is  this  Dr.  Carlisle?  A  man  who  went  to  the 
college  as  a  teacher  of  astronomy  and  moral  science  in  1854, 
when  it  was  founded,  and  who  has  been  there  ever  since, 


Life  Sketch  of  Dr.  Carlisle.  47 

part  of  the  time  as  President  and  again  as  teacher.  Doubtless 
neither  philosophers  nor  astronomers  regard  him  as  a  great 
contributor  to  their  departments  of  learning.  Yet  it  is  doubt- 
ful whether  there  be  an  astronomer  or  a  philosopher  at  any 
institution  or  in  any  community  in  our  whole  land  who  has 
exerted  so  strong  an  influence  upon  the  young  men  who  have 
come  in  contact  with  him.  They  do  not  say  that  he  taught 
them  astronomy  or  that  he  taught  them  philosophy,  but  they 
all  do  bear  testimony  to  his  having  given  them,  in  greater 
measure  than  any  other  man,  a  right  adjustment  to  life  and  a 
moral  uplift — a  kind  of  influence  that  the  oldest  of  his  pupils, 
who  are  now  themselves  far  on  in  middle  life,  remember  with 
affection  that  has  grown  since  their  youth. 

Says  Dr.  Wallace  again: 

Men  often  wondered  why  the  Doctor  had  no  magnum 
opus,  why  he  wrote  no  g^reat  book  or  devoted  his  powers  to 
no  great  discovery,  or  threw  his  strength  into  no  specific  line 
of  social  or  religious  work.  The  Doctor  did  have  his  magnum 
opus,  but  it  did  not  lie  along  the  printed  page.  It  was  to  make 
the  most  powerful  and  lasting  efficacious  impression,  morally 
and  religiously,  upon  the  young  men  whom  he  could  reach. 
It  was  a  favorite  thought  with  him  that  no  holy,  unselfish 
life  in  even  the  remote  ages  of  the  past  is  lost,  but  that  its 
power  for  good  is  still  in  the  world;  and  without  doubt  this 
must  have  been  precious  to  him  as  he  sought  with  singleness 
of  heart  to  glorify  his  Creator  and  Redeemer  through  the 
lives  of  men  who  were  to  live  after  him. 

An  extract  from  one  of  his  speeches  illustrates 
this  thought — ^the  influence  of  the  teacher  that  lives 
on  in  the  memory  of  his  pupils: 

The  gay  traveler  or  excitement  seeker  will  never  seek  his 
resting  place.  But  in  after  years  some  old  pupil,  subdued, 
chastened  by  the  stern  discipline  of  experience,  will  turn 
aside  from  the  thoroughfare  of  hfe  and  clear  away  the  weeds 
a  little  space  until  he  finds  it;  and,  the  impressions  of  his 


4S  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

youth  coming  over  him,  he  will  there  consecrate  himself  to 
high  and  holier  aims  in  life,  and  the  seed  dropped  by  the  hand 
that  molders  beneath  shall  spring  up  and  bring  forth  its  ap- 
pointed harvest  Is  not  that  a  monument  for  which  kings 
might  wish  to  die?  Why  could  not  a  man  sleep  as  sweetly 
there  as  in  Westminster  Abbey? 

It  was  perfectly  natural  that  Dr.  Carlisle,  who 
was  so  idolized  by  his  students  and  so  revered  by 
his  fellow  townsmen,  should  have  been  much  quoted, 
especially  as  he  had  a  striking  epigrammatic  way 
of  saying  things.  The  sayings  cited  in  the  follow- 
ing paragraphs  have  been  gathered  from  various 
sources,  mainly  from  memoranda  made  by  Dr.  Sny- 
der. Some  few  of  his  expressions  were  used  so 
often  as  to  be  generally  recognized  as  stock  phrases 
of  his — e.  g.,  "Poor  fellow,  it's  a  crisis  in  his  life, 
an  era  in  his  history";  or,  "I  hope  he  is  on  up- 
grade now."  But  often  they  seem  to  come  freshly 
coined  from  a  furnace  of  strong  feeling.  Dr.  Wal- 
lace expressed  it  thus:  "Winged  words  sprang  up 
in  the  path  of  his  speech  as  the  offspring  of  'thought 
under  high  emotional  tension.*  Once  I  remember, 
in  speaking  of  vulgar  and  profane  language,  he 
turned  suddenly  to  the  young  man  and  with  flashing 
eyes  and  vibrant  tone  exclaimed:  *The  temple  of 
your  soul  is  become  the  menagerie  for  the  obscene 
reveling  of  every  unclean  beast.* "  Close  akin  to 
that  is  the  remark  that  Dr.  Snyder  heard  him  make 
in  some  talk  to  students:  "To  be  the  roommate  at 
college  of  a  low,  vile  blackguard  is  a  dear  price  to 
pay  even  for  an  education.'*    And  it  was  a  very 


Life  Sketch  of  Dr.  Carlisle.  49 

gentle  and  wise  admonition  to  his  boys:  "See  that 
your  roommate  has  a  good  roommate."  One  of 
them  wrote  afterwards:  "Those  words  have  been 
the  most  potent  influence  of  my  life."  In  his  last 
years  he  often  dismissed  a  class  with  the  emphatic 
words,  "Don't  forget  the  inner  man !"  and  his  con- 
stant admonition,  "Don't  drift!"  will  linger  in  the 
ears  of  all  the  later  generations  of  Wofford  men. 

"Young  men,  beware  of  crowds !"  he  would  some- 
times say  to  a  class,  as  he  had  said  in  his  address  to 
the  boys  at  Cokesbury  School  in  1854.  "Many  a 
man  will  contribute  his  share,  as  one  in  a  crowd,  to 
that  which  he  would  tremble  to  think  of  doing 
alone.  .  .  .  Young  men  should  remember  that 
conscience  in  all  its  vocabulary  has  no  such  word  as 
we.*'  And  the  counterpart  of  that  is  another  winged 
phrase  caught  from  his  lips  by  Dr.  Snyder:  "Three 
men  commit  a  crime.  Each  is  guilty  of  the  whole. 
There  are  no  vulgar  fractions  in  sin." 

Admonitions  on  the  value  and  dangers  of  money 
were  frequent  in  his  talks  to  students,  of  course. 
Here  are  two  or  three:  "There  are  two  classes  of 
students  that  cannot  afford  to  spend  much  money, 
those  who  have  worked  and  made  their  own  money 
and  those  for  whom  somebody  else  has  worked  hard 
and  made  money."  On  another  occasion  he  said: 
"While  you  are  planning  to  spend  a  dollar  foolishly, 
your  parents  are  planning  how  to  save  a  dollar  that 
you  may  stay  in  college."  The  following  Is  a  tru- 
ism, yet  thoroughly  characteristic  of  his  way  of 
4 


50  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

generalizing:  "The  management  of  that  perplexing 
and  delicate  matter  is  rightfully  the  invariable  test 
of  character,  for  it  is  at  this  point  that  scholar  and 
sage  and  poet  and  schoolboy  must  touch  common 
life  and  bear  its  strain."  "A  man  may,"  he  said  to 
his  students,  "be  able  to  tell  in  six  languages  why  he 
can't  pay  his  debt.  The  debt,  if  ever  paid,  is  paid 
in  solid,  everyday  American  gold  and  silver  or  green- 
backs." 

Prodigality  with  money  had  for  him  its  counter- 
part in  extravagance  of  language.  "The  favorite 
lurking  place  of  truth  is  never  a  thicket  of  superla- 
tives" was  a  gentle  rebuke  made  to  a  young  woman, 
but  often  applied  in  other  words  to  young  men. 
Money,  chastity,  and  the  value  of  human  life  were 
the  three  subjects  that  he  felt  most  concerned  about 
for  young  men.  "An  insult,"  he  said,  "is  never  an 
excuse  for  taking  human  life.  Time  will  cure  the 
wound  of  the  insult,  but  will  only  deepen  the  stain 
of  the  blood."  "If  an  angry  drunken  man  were 
after  me,"  he  said  on  another  occasion,  "I  would 
give  him  the  right  of  way,  just  I  would  give  it  to 
a  mad-dog."  To  a  mature,  sensible  man  he  knew 
that  would  seem  only  prudence,  but  also  that  to  a 
hot-headed  youth  it  might  seem  cowardice. 

He  was  never  bored  by  teaching,  and  he  had  as 
exalted  an  estimate  as  Socrates  of  the  dignity  of  the 
master  teacher.  "One  of  the  last  great  teachers," 
he  apostrophized  one  day,  "a  term  that  is  growing 
into  contempt  in  the  presence  of  the  scholar,  the 


Life  Sketch  of  Dr.  Carlisle.  51 

specialist,  who  is  called  upon  to  make  an  original 
investigator  of  every  freshman  and  sophomore." 
The  young  freshman  was  always  to  him  a  thing  of 
curious  and  absorbing  interest.  It  may  have  been 
the  freshman  goemetry  class  he  consoled  with  the  re- 
mark: "That  young  student  who  does  not  have  a 
case  of  homesickness  now  and  then  either  has  not  a 
happy  home  or  is  unworthy  of  one."  "Even  the 
plainest  freshman,"  he  said,  "doubtless  in  the  faculty 
room,  "is  a  combination  lock  which  can  be  opened  by 
the  right  teacher  in  the  right  way,  the  right  teacher 
that  may  thus  enter  his  mind  and  heart."  There  was 
a  whole  condensed  textbook  of  pedagogical  wisdom 
in  his  retort  one  day  to  Dr.  Snyder,  who  as  a  young 
professor  had  answered  the  Doctor's  remark,  "We 
can't  expect  students  to  be  perfect,"  with:  "I'd  like 
to  have  a  perfect  class  just  once."  As  quick  as  a 
flash  came  the  words:  "A  perfect  boy  might  re- 
quire a  perfect  teacher."  Walking  one  day  to  the 
funeral  of  a  young  freshman,  he  said  with  unfor- 
gettable impressiveness:  "This  young  freshman  is 
now  wiser  than  any  one  of  his  professors — graduat- 
ed at  twenty-one  into  the  larger  light  of  another 
world." 

The  danger  as  well  as  the  opportunity  of  college 
life  he  fully  realized  and  often  emphasized,  saying 
once:  "In  almost  every  case  a  young  man  fixes  in 
college  the  two  points  of  the  straight  line  which 
determines  the  direction  of  his  life."  "There  is 
danger,"  he  said  again,  "that  colleges  are  turning 


52  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

out  every  year  accomplished  tramps  (with  a  Latin 
diploma  in  their  pockets)  to  swell  that  vast  and  in- 
creasing army  which  must  either  beg  or  steal.'*  Re- 
ferring on  one  occasion  to  four  hundred  men  and 
women  applying  for  ten  positions  in  the  gift  of  the 
Legislature,  paying  from  forty  to  sixty  dollars  and 
lasting  only  a  few  weeks,  he  asked:  "Is  it  possible 
that  the  majority  of  young  men  are  finding  no  fixed 
positions  In  life  for  which  they  are  thoroughly  pre- 
pared, but  are  floating  out  into  that  vast  mass  that 
pauperizes  society  and  enriches  jails  ?  At  any  rate, 
I  have  a  faith,  as  strong  as  my  faith  in  the  provi- 
dence of  God,  that  society  always  has  a  proper  place 
for  that  young  man  who  can  pay  his  way  in  force 
and  Integrity  of  character." 

The  supreme  importance  of  character  was  an  in- 
exhaustible theme  with  him.  "You  cannot  all  be 
eloquent,  young  gentlemen;  but  you  can  every  one 
live  a  pure,  clean  godly  life  and  in  that  way  preach 
to  the  world  a  sermon  greater  than  any  ever 
preached  by  human  lips."  "I  have  very  few  fears 
for  a  young  man,"  he  remarked,  "when  the  simple 
faith  of  his  childhood  seems  to  be  shaken  by  the 
trade  winds  of  a  critical  attitude,  by  gusts  of  earnest 
inquiry,  or  even  by  a  cyclone  of  ardent  doubt,  pro- 
vided he  keep  the  foundations  of  his  moral  charac- 
ter pure  and  strong."  "When  character  once  begins 
to  disintegrate,"  he  said,  "there  is  no  telling  where 
the  breaking  will  show  itself."  "When  a  young  man 
begins  to  drink,  it  is  not  that  he  will  become  a  drunk- 


Life  Sketch  of  Dr.  Carlisle.  53 

ard.  I  have  fears  of  something  far  worse.  Society 
and  home  training  have  so  frowned  upon  drinking 
that  every  step  a  young  man  takes  in  this  direction 
is  an  act  of  deception.  And  so  character  is  weak- 
ened at  its  most  vital  point,  and  be  becomes  a  Har 
instead  of  a  drunkard,  or  more  probably  both." 
There  was  nothing  he  so  despised  as  a  liar.  It  was 
a  common  remark  in  college  that  a  student  could  not 
look  the  Doctor  in  the  eye  and  tell  him  a  lie.  "I'm 
not  talking,"  he  said  once,  "to  the  educated  young 
white  man  who  can  tell  an  outright  untruth.  There 
is  nothing  in  him  to  talk  to.  You  can't  raise  him 
with  a  lever,  because  there  is  nothing  to  rest  your 
lever  on.  Sometimes  your  leg  or  your  arm  goes  to 
sleep.  It  needs  a  sudden  blow,  a  rubbing,  to  awake 
it.  Conscience  sometimes  also  goes  to  sleep  and 
needs  a  strong  moral  shock  to  awaken  it."  I  think 
he  would  certainly  have  explained  Socrates's  warn- 
ing voice  (8ai)ttoviov  Ti)  as  conscience,  only  to  him  it 
was  positive  as  well  as  negative.  "That  little  spark 
of  celestial  fire  called  conscience,"  he  would  say, 
"may  become  a  consuming  fire." 

Probably  it  was  after  receiving  the  request  for 
an  indorsement  from  some  former  student  that  he 
spoke  as  follows:  "So  many  young  men,  after  a 
college  course  in  which  integrity  has  been  broken 
and  character  tarnished,  write  to  me  for  recommen- 
dations for  responsible  positions,  thus  implying  that 
a  word  from  me  can  supply  what  they  have  not  or 
else  what  they  did  the  best  they  could  to  destroy, 


54  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

implying  also  that  the  high  qualities  of  character 
and  conduct  with  them  had  grown  up  in  a  night  and 
flourished  as  Jonah's  gourd.  Not  so!  Not  so! 
Will  you  ever  learn  the  lesson  that  the  high  mat- 
ters of  conduct  and  character  are  not  the  spontane- 
ous fungus  growth  of  a  night,  of  two  nights,  of 
three  nights,  but  the  results  of  the  slow,  silent  proc- 
esses of  the  years,  renovating,  purifying,  strength- 
ening, and  toughening  through  strenuous  endeav- 
or?" To  ambitious  young  men  was  especially  ap- 
plicable the  injunction:  "Character  and  scholarship 
are  too  close  together  for  a  young  man  to  build  up 
one  and  at  the  same  time  trample  down  the  other," 
And  it  seems  to  me  I  can  see  now  his  blazing  eye 
and  uplifted  arm  as  he  says  from  the  rostrum:  "If 
this  country  ever  goes  to  ruin,  it  will  not  be  from 
lack  of  Greek,  Latin,  and  mathematics,  but  from 
lack  of  the  basis  of  honest  and  true  character."  The 
same  thought  he  expressed  another  time  in  these 
words:  "This  country  will  never  go  down  in  ruin 
for  lack  of  educated,  skilled  men.  It  may  go  down 
for  lack  of  moral  character.  And  yet  our  Lord 
knew  infinitely  more  of  the  good  and  evil  in  this 
world  than  we.  He  knew  all  things,  and  he  was  no 
pessimist." 

He  was,  of  course,  fully  aware  of  the  fierce 
storms  that  often  assail  and  stir  to  the  depths  a 
young  human  soul.  What  help  could  he  suggest, 
what  refuge  in  such  a  crisis?  This  one  suggestion: 
"That  is  a  wonderful  phrase  of  Nehemiah's  about 


Life  Sketch  of  Dr.  Carlisle.  55 

consulting  with  himself.  It  is  so  suggestive.  To 
hold  a  mass  meeting  of  the  powers  of  one's  nature, 
to  go  solemnly  into  a  committee  of  the  whole  upon 
the  state  of  one's  self — not  a  committee  in  which 
the  anarchy  of  the  impulses,  the  appetites,  and  the 
desires  hold  sway,  but  a  committee  presided  over  by 
the  human  will,  illuminated  by  the  imperial  intellect, 
and  guided  by  the  keenly  dividing  dictates  of  the 
divine  conscience — ^this  is  a  high  consultation  with 
one's  self." 

But  the  commonest  appeal  with  him  to  the  boy's 
conscience  was  the  name  mother.  "Every  mother,'* 
as  Dr.  Wallace  well  said,  "was  to  him  holy  by  her 
office,  her  sacrifice,  and  her  service;  and  if  woman 
could  be  anything  other  in  his  mind  than  what  she 
is  in  the  best  meaning,  he  never  spoiled  the  ideals  of 
young  men  by  revealing  it."  The  one  safe  thing 
for  the  boy  was  always  to  confide  in  and  consult, 
never  to  deceive,  his  mother.  "Whether  to  go  to 
the  circus  or  opera  house,"  he  said,  "is  a  matter  of 
doubt  (men  may  differ  as  to  whether  it  is  right  or 
not)  ;  but  there  can  be  no  difference  of  opinion  as 
to  whether  it  is  right  to  deceive  your  mother  about 
it."  Next  to  mother,  the  strongest,  frequentest 
appeal  to  him  was  in  the  name  of  sister.  Urging 
purity  of  thought  and  conduct,  he  would  entreat: 
"Think  if  it  were  your  own  sister.  Remember,  she 
is  somebody's  sister."  His  sense  of  the  intimate 
relationship  and  value  of  wife  is  conveyed  in  the 


56  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

epigram  that  was  often  on  his  lips:  "A  man's  two 
best  counselors  are  his  wife  and  his  pillow." 

With  words  like  these  he  would  hearten  students 
for  the  steady  round  of  toil  that  alone  makes  college 
work  successful:  "Thomas  Carlyle  has  said  that  it 
was  not  a  sign  of  strength  when  one  had  convul- 
sions so  that  it  required  seven  strong  men  to  hold 
him,  but  that  the  true  strength  was  the  daily,  earnest 
bearing  of  burdens  so  that  one  grew  stronger  under 
them."  So  the  real  student  is  not  the  one  who  has 
convulsions  of  study  on  stated  occasions — examina- 
tions and  such  like — but  does  his  daily  duties  man- 
fully and  thus  by  a  gradual  process  feels  himself 
growing  and  expanding  under  them. 

Because  he  loved  young  men  and  considered 
human  life  a  precious  privilege,  he  would  some- 
times exclaim:  "O  young  men,  what  a  jewel  you 
now  have  in  your  hands  in  the  possession  of  young 
manhood !  Will  you  play  with  it  as  a  baboon  would 
with  a  glittering  gem  and  then  toss  it  into  the  mire  ?" 
And  the  same  yearning  love  for  young  men,  as  well 
as  a  strong  sense  of  duty  to  society  and  the  State, 
called  forth  the  exhortation  to  his  colleagues :  "Let  it 
be  our  constant  aim  that  every  day  spent  in  the  reci- 
tation room  may  tend  to  furnish  those  results  which 
the  Prussian  king  demanded  of  his  university: 
*Fruits,  gentlemen ;  fruits  in  the  soundness  of  men.' " 

A  few  sayings  of  Dr.  Carlisle's  gathered  from 
other  old  pupils  and  friends  may  be  added  here.  A 
thoroughly  characteristic  saying  of  his  was:  "It  is 


Life  Sketch  of  Dr.  Carlisle.  57 

a  terrible  thing  for  a  young  man  to  have  attained 
his  ideal."  One  of  his  constant  appeals  to  students 
was  in  these  words:  "Aim  at  the  moon.  You  may 
hit  a  bush,  but  you  will  hit  something."  Sometimes 
he  would  say  to  a  class:  "Israel  was  seeking  a  king. 
Young  man,  what  are  you  seeking?"  That  was  the 
way  in  which  he  drove  home  the  Monday  morning 
Bible  lesson  of  the  junior  year.  The  following  senti- 
ment of  his  was  written  years  ago,  but  applies  even 
more  aptly  to  the  present  situation  of  our  country: 
"He  may  be  unwise  who  is  sanguine ;  but  he  is  un- 
manly, unpatriotic,  and  unchristian  who  despairs." 

With  all  his  greatness.  Dr.  Carlisle  was  very  mod- 
est. One  day  he  sent  for  Dr.  Snyder,  who  found 
him  much  moved.  "I  understand,"  he  said,  "that  a 
man  who  calls  himself  my  friend  purposes  writing  a 
life  of  me.  If  you  are  his  friend,  I  beg  you  to  pre- 
vent it.  What  is  there  to  write?  I  am  only  a 
teacher." 

The  following  story,  told  by  Dr.  Snyder,  indicates 
the  unique  position  of  Dr.  Carlisle  in  the  regard  of 
South  Carolinians: 

He  was  the  "noblest  Roman  of  them  all."  But  what  I 
really  want  to  say  to  you  is  in  relation  to  what  happened  to 
me  last  year  while  at  the  Gayoso  Hotel,  at  Memphis,  Tenn. 
We  went  in  as  strangers  and  registered;  and  the  hotel 
clerk,  an  old  man,  remarked  that  we  were  from  South  Caro- 
lina. He  said  he  had  a  guest  some  weeks  before  from 
Abbeville,  S.  C,  who  had  every  appearance  of  being  a 
gentleman.  After  being  there  a  week  or  more,  the  South 
Carolinian  came  to  him  and  asked  him  to  cash  a  check  for 
him.    "It  was  a  risky  business,"  the  clerk  said,  "for  a  hotel 


58  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

to  cash  checks  for  the  traveling  public";  but  as  the  man  im- 
pressed him  as  being  a  gentleman,  he  hated  to  refuse.  The 
thought  struck  him  to  ask  the  South  Carolinian  who  was  the 
greatest  man  in  his  State.  The  stranger  dropped  his  head  as 
if  he  were  counting  them.  In  a  few  moments  he  straightened 
up,  smiled,  and  said:  "Dr.  James  H.  Carlisle,  of  Woflford 
College,  Spartanburg,  S.  C"  The  hotel  man  told  his  guest 
that  from  what  he  hard  heard  of  the  State  he  would  cash  his 
check,  as  no  one  would  carry  a  spurious  check  about  who 
thought  Dr.  Carlisle  the  greatest  man  in  his  State. 

That  is  a  good  story,  and  it  expresses  the  com- 
mon sentiment  in  South  Carolina  for  many  years. 
"The  greatest  man  I  have  ever  known,"  said  some 
years  ago  Ex-Lieutenant  Governor  Shands,  of 
Mississippi,  a  South  Carolinian  and  a  pupil  of  Dr. 
Carlisle's.  "Dr.  Carlisle  and  Wade  Hampton  I  con- 
sider the  greatest  men  I  have  ever  met,"  said  Ex- 
Congressman  Dibble,  of  South  Carolina.  "The 
greatest  man  that  South  Carolina  has  ever  pro- 
duced," said  Senator  E.  D.  Smith  at  the  time  of 
Dr.  Carlisle's  death.  "The  greatest  man  in  the  coim- 
try  and  the  most  successful  in  his  line,  the  making  of 
men,"  said  Senator  Tillman  to  Dr.  Snyder.  "The 
greatest  man  I  have  ever  known,"  said  J.  L.  Glenn, 
Esq.,  President  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  Wof- 
ford  College.  "In  him  the  State  of  South  Carolina 
has  lost  her  greatest  citizen,"  wrote  Bishop  Kilgo 
and  Dr.  Chrietzberg  in  a  memorial.  "The  most  re- 
markable man  I  have  met,"  said  Jenkin  Lloyd-Jones, 
"No  other  South  Carolinian  has  wielded  so  strong 
and  wide  an  influence  for  good  so  long  a  time  as 
James  H.  Carlisle" — memorial  editorial  in  the  Co- 


Life  Sketch  of  Dr.  Carlisle.  59 

lumbia  Record.  "South  Carolina  says  the  long  fare- 
well to  her  most  reverently  valued  and  best-loved 
son" — editorial  in  the  Spartanburg  Herald. 

This  man  whom  the  State  of  South  Carolina  so 
long  delighted  to  honor,  the  most  influential  lay- 
man in  the  Southern  Methodist  Church,  and  re- 
vered in  many  States,  was  only  a  professor  and 
president,  at  a  salary  of  from  fifteen  hundred  to 
two  thousand  dollars,  in  a  small  college  that  never 
had  over  three  hundred  students  or  a  productive 
endowment  of  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars.  Truly,  as  President  Mitchell,  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  South  Carolina,  said:  "It  bespeaks  the 
nobility  of  soul  of  the  people  of  the  State  that  they 
singled  out  such  a  man  as  the  chief  object  of  their 
affection  and  admiration."  And  as  some  one  wrote 
in  the  World's  Work  (June,  1907) :  "There  is  no 
commercial  standard  by  which  the  influence  of  Dr. 
Carlisle  and  Wofford  College  can  be  measured," 

Dr.  Carlisle's  fatal  illness  began  with  a  fainting 
spell  Monday  morning,  October  18,  1909.  He  ral- 
lied somewhat  at  intervals,  but  seemed  to  have  been 
unconscious  or  under  the  influence  of  opiates  most 
of  the  time.  "To  the  end  his  thoughts  were  still  of 
his  students.  As  the  dim  light  broke  into  his  cham- 
ber on  one  of  the  last  mornings,  he  asked  the  time. 
'Six  o'clock,'  was  the  answer.  Supposing  it  to  be 
the  early  sunset  of  a  winter  day,  he  said:  'The  boys 
will  have  a  long  evening  to  study.'  How  often  will 
these  words  come  with  sweet  sadness  to  the  men 


6o  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

who  read  them,  helping  them,  as  they  take  up  their 
tasks,  to  reahze  for  themselves  the  truth  of  his 
noble  saying:  The  hard  points  of  onerous  duties 
frequently  done  soon  sweeten  into  the  joys  of  high 
privilege'!"  Wednesday  morning  he  observed  the 
uniform  of  the  sick  nurse  and  asked:  "To  what 
school  do  you  belong?"  When  she  replied  that  she 
was  a  nurse  from  the  hospital,  he  said:  "It  is  a 
broad  field."  So  his  last  conscious  words  were  one 
,of  his  usual  characteristic  expressions.  "During 
the  last  hours  of  his  life  he  fancied  himself  in  his 
classroom  meeting  a  new  freshman  class  and  spoke 
at  length  to  his  boys  as  in  times  past.  The  ques- 
tions and  the  words  of  counsel  and  instruction  were 
as  well  ordered,  but  for  a  word  here  and  there,  as 
when  in  the  days  of  his  strength  he  stamped  the 
mint  mark  of  his  character  upon  the  young  men 
before  him."  At  7:45  a.m.  Thursday,  October  21, 
he  breathed  his  last.  The  college,  the  town,  and 
the  State  had  always  honored  him  above  all  men; 
so  his  funeral  was  a  fitting  tribute  to  his  worth.  It 
was  a  fine  autumn  afternoon  (Friday,  October  22), 
and  the  simple  ceremonies  were  held  in  front  of  the 
main  college  building.  The  burial  service  of  the 
Church  was  read,  prayers  were  offered  by  the  pas- 
tors of  the  various  Churches,  and  two  of  his  favor- 
ite hymns  were  sung  by  the  choir.  There  was  no 
eulogy.  That  was  as  he  had  wished.  Fully  five 
thousand  people  were  present.  The  negro  congre- 
gations sent  delegations.     Ten  students  from  the 


Life  Sketch  of  Dr.  Carlisle.  6i 

four  college  classes  and  Fitting  School  bore  the  cof- 
fin. The  faculty  and  Board  of  Trustees  were  hon- 
orary pallbearers.  These  were  followed  by  the 
whole  student  body  and  all  alumni  in  attendance, 
then  by  the  vast  concourse  of  citizens.  The  proces- 
sion passed  through  rows  of  three  thousand  school 
children — for  all  the  schools,  both  white  and  black, 
were  present — alining  the  way  on  both  sides  from 
the  college  to  the  cemetery.  All  business  was 
suspended  in  the  town  during  the  progress  of  the 
funeral.  The  floral  offerings  from  the  college,  the 
town,  and  from  all  over  the  State  were  profuse  and 
beautiful.  The  other  colleges  in  the  State  sent  del- 
egations, and  distinguished  men  were  present  from 
all  parts  of  the  commonwealth.  In  view  of  such 
a  life  thus  ended,  the  words  with  which  Justice 
Woods  closed  his  tribute  are  most  appropriate: 

The  death  of  a  man  to  whom  it  was  given  to  live  a  long 
and  full  life  in  the  blessing  of  others  by  the  exercise  of  these 
powers  should  not  be  marked  by  gloom  and  sad  refrains,  but 
rather  by  anthems  of  praise  and  triumph  that  all  his  life  he 
stood  fast  and  gave  strength  and  hope  to  men.  We  know 
not  of  his  future  beyond  this  life;  but  there  can  be  no  ag- 
nosticism and  no  skepticism  that  he  is 

"Of  those  immortal  dead  who  live  again 
In  minds  made  better  by  their  presence :  live 
In  pulses  stirred  by  generosity, 
In  deeds  of  daring  rectitude,  in  scorn 
For  miserable  aims  that  end  with  self, 
In  thoughts  sublime  that  pierce  the  night  like  stars, 
And  with  their  mild  persistence  urge  man's  search 
To  vaster  issues." 
Madison,  Wis. 


CHAPTER  III. 
Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Citizen. 


CHAPTER  III. 
Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Citizen. 

BY  WATSON  B.  DUNCAN. 

On  Sunday  evening,  November  7,  1909,  at  eight 
o'clock,  a  great  memorial  service  in  honor  of  Dr. 
James  H.  Carlisle  was  held  in  the  auditorium  of 
Converse  College,  Spartanburg,  S.  C.  The  follow- 
ing program  was  observed: 

1.  Presiding  officer,  Mr.  W.  E.  Burnett,  President  Wofford 
College  Alumni  Association. 

2.  Organ  prelude. 

3.  Hymn. 

4.  Scripture-reading,  Dr.  J.  S.  Watkins. 

5.  Prayer,  Rev.  W.  H.  K.  Pendleton. 

6.  Address,  "Dr.  Carlisle  as  an  Educator,"  Dr.  James  H. 
Kirkland. 

7.  Address,  "Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Citizen,"  Mr.  Charles  Petty. 

8.  Address,  "Dr.  Carlisle  as  an  Influence  in  the  State," 
Judge  D.  E.  Hydrick. 

9.  Address,  Mr.  E.  L.  Archer, 
la  Hymn. 

11.  Address,  "Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Friend  of  Youth,"  Dr.  R.  P. 
PelL 

12.  Address,  "Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Moral  Force,"  Rev.  R.  S. 
Truesdale. 

13.  Address,  "Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Christian,"  Dr.  L.  M.  Roper. 

14.  Address  and  presentation  of  resolutions,  Dr.  Henry  N. 
Snyder. 

15.  Hymn. 

16.  Benediction,  Rev.  J.  J.  Ransom. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  address  the  following 
resolutions  were  unanimously  adopted: 

5  (65) 


66  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

For  fifty-six  years  Dr.  James  H.  Carlisle  was  a  citizen  of 
Spartanburg.  In  all  these  years  no  man  ever  found  aught  of 
guile  in  him.  We  knew  him  for  what  he  was — a  man  of  the 
New  Testament  who  forgot  himself  in  loving  service  for 
others.  In  the  classroom  and  in  the  familiar  study  in  the  old 
house  in  the  Wofford  pines  he  taught  us  and  our  children  the 
high  virtues  of  the  life  that  really  counts;  and  from  pulpit 
and  platform  he  spoke  to  us  as  a  community  like  a  prophet 
of  old,  holding  us  steady  to  ideals  of  God  and  righteousness. 
And  his  word  had  power  and  authority  with  us  because  of 
the  life,  the  character,  the  personality  in  and  behind  it  Sim- 
ply, greatly,  nobly,  humbly  he  lived  in  single-hearted  devoted- 
ness  to  whatsoever  things  are  honest  and  true  and  just  and 
pure  and  of  good  report.  And  the  radiant  illustration  he  gave 
us  of  the  abiding  beauty  of  these  high  things  of  the  moral 
life  ever  appealed  to  what  in  us  was  noblest;  and  we  know 
that  the  richest  asset  of  this  community  is  to  be  found  in  the 
moral  tone  conferred  by  his  influence  and  the  inspiration  of 
his  example.  In  his  lifetime  we  honored  ourselves  by  calling 
him  our  foremost  citizen;  and  he  was  this  because  we  knew 
him  to  be  the  wisest,  the  best,  the  most  loving,  the  most  lov- 
able man  we  had  ever  known,  the  friend  of  all  men  and  women 
and  little  children,  of  whatever  rank  or  class  or  color,  and  the 
disinterested  helper  in  every  righteous  and  worthy  cause. 
Therefore  be  it 

Resolved:  i.  That  in  the  passing  of  Dr.  Carlisle's  bodily 
presence  from  among  us  this  community  suflFers  a  profound 
sense  of  sorrow  for  what  to  us  is  a  loss  that  cannot  be 
measured. 

2.  That  no  words  are  adequate  to  express  our  debt  of 
gratitude  for  the  potent  influence  of  his  example  and  the 
abiding  inspiration  of  his  life  and  character. 

3.  That  we  cherish  as  a  precious  memory  the  greatness, 
the  goodness,  the  nobility,  the  inestimable  service  of  this 
teacher  and  friend  of  us  all,  who  by  word  and  deed  ever  held 
before  us  the  loftiest  ideals  of  right  living. 

Dr.  Carlisle  occupies  a  unique  position  in  the 
history  of  South  Carolina  by  virtue  of  the  fact  that 


Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Citizen.  67 

he  was  one  of  the  signers  of  the  famous  Ordinance 
of  Secession.  Perhaps  it  is  due  his  memory  to  pre- 
sent in  this  connection  the  setting  of  this  incident  in 
his  life  in  order  that  his  act  may  be  understood 
properly  and  his  motive  construed  righteously. 

The  Articles  of  Confederation,  entitled  originally 
"An  Act  of  Confederation  of  the  United  States  of 
America,"  were  adopted  in  the  Congress  held  at 
Philadelphia,  Pa.,  July  9,  1776.  The  second  article 
of  this  Act  of  Confederation  reads  as  follows: 
"Each  State  retains  its  sovereignty,  freedom,  and 
independence  and  every  power,  jurisdiction,  and 
right  which  is  not  by  this  confederation  expressly 
delegated  to  the  United  States  in  Congress  assem- 
bled." Henry  Laurens,  William  Henry  Dra)^on, 
John  Matthews,  Richard  Hutson,  and  Thomas  Hey- 
ward,  Jr.,  were  the  delegates  from  South  Carolina 
and  signed  the  document  "on  the  part  and  behalf  of 
the  State  of  South  Carolina."  In  the  early  part  of 
the  convention  which  formed  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  a  motion  was  made  to  confer  upon 
Congress  the  power  to  call  forth  the  force  of  the 
Union  against  any  member  of  the  Union  failing 
to  fulfill  its  duties  under  the  articles  thereof.  When 
the  motion  was  being  considered,  Mr.  Madison  said: 
"A  union  of  the  States  containing  such  an  ingredi- 
ent seems  to  provide  for  its  own  destruction.  The 
use  of  force  against  a  State  would  look  more  like  a 
declaration  of  war  than  an  infliction  of  punishment 
and  would  probably  be  considered  by  the  party  at- 


68  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

tacked  as  a  dissolution  of  all  previous  compacts  by 
which  it  might  be  bound."  The  proposition  was 
rejected  and  was  never  again  revived.  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son Davis,  in  his  "Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Confederate 
Government,"  says: 

Nullification  and  secession  are  often  erroneously  treated  as 
if  they  were  one  and  the  same  thing.  It  is  true  that  both 
ideas  spring  from  the  sovereign  right  of  a  State  to  interpose 
for  the  protection  of  its  own  people,  but  they  are  altogether 
unhke  as  to  both  their  extent  and  the  character  of  the  means 
to  be  employed.  The  first  was  a  temporary  expedient,  intend- 
ing to  restrain  action  until  the  question  at  issue  could  be 
submitted  to  a  convention  of  the  States.  It  was  a  remedy 
which  its  supporters  sought  to  apply  within  the  Union,  a 
means  to  avoid  the  last  resort — separation.  If  the  application 
for  a  convention  should  fail,  or  if  the  States  making  it  should 
suffer  an  adverse  decision,  the  advocates  of  that  remedy  have 
not  revealed  what  they  proposed  as  the  next  step,  supposing 
the  infraction  of  the  compact  to  have  been  of  that  character 
which,  according  to  Mr.  Webster,  dissolved  it. 

Secession,  on  the  other  hand,  was  the  assertion  of  the 
inalienable  right  of  a  people  to  change  their  government  when- 
ever it  ceased  to  fulfill  the  purposes  for  which  it  was  or- 
dained and  established.  Under  our  form  of  government  and 
the  cardinal  principles  upon  which  it  was  founded  it  should 
have  been  a  peaceful  remedy.  The  withdrawal  of  a  State 
from  a  league  has  no  revolutionary  or  insurrectionary  char- 
acteristic. The  government  of  the  State  remains  unchanged 
as  to  all  internal  affairs.  It  is  only  its  external  or  confeder- 
ate relations  that  are  altered.  To  term  this  action  of  a 
sovereign  a  "rebellion"  is  a  gross  abuse  of  language.  So  is 
the  flippant  phrase  which  speaks  of  it  as  an  appeal  to  "the 
arbitrament  of  the  sword."  In  the  late  contest,  in  particular, 
there  was  no  appeal  by  the  seceding  States  to  the  arbitrament 
of  arms.  There  was,  on  their  part,  no  invitation  nor  provo- 
cation to  war.  They  stood  in  an  attitude  of  self-defense  and 
were  attacked  for  merely  exercising  a  right  guaranteed  by 


Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Citizen.  69 

the  original  terms  of  the  compact.  They  neither  tendered 
nor  accepted  any  challenge  to  the  wager  of  battle.  The  man 
who  defends  his  house  against  attack  cannot  with  any  propri- 
ety be  said  to  have  submitted  the  question  of  his  right  to  it 
to  the  arbitrament  of  arms. 

Two  moral  obligations  or  restrictions  upon  a  seceding  State 
certainly  exist :  In  the  first  place,  not  to  break  up  the  partner- 
ship without  good  and  sufficient  cause;  and,  in  the  second 
place,  to  make  an  equitable  settlement  with  former  associates 
and,  as  far  as  may  be,  to  avoid  the  infliction  of  loss  or  damage 
upon  any  of  them.  Neither  of  these  obligations  was  violated 
or  neglected  by  the  Southern  States  in  their  secession. 

The  decade  prior  to  the  year  i860  was  character- 
ized by  fierce  political  strife,  with  its  cleavage  for 
the  most  part  along  sectional  lines.  The  main  issue 
was  State  rights,  and  slavery  was  the  occasion  of 
the  struggle.  The  storm  cloud  which  had  been  hov- 
ering over  the  nation  for  a  score  of  years  broke  in 
all  its  fury  during  the  Presidential  campaign  of 
i860.  The  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln  to  the 
Presidency  by  the  nonslaveholding  States  led  to 
the  general  conviction  in  the  South  that  the  hostility 
on  the  part  of  these  States  was  evidence  of  their 
disregard  of  obligations  and  that  the  laws  of  the 
general  government  had  ceased  to  effect  the  object 
of  the  Constitution.  In  most  of  the  Northern  States 
a  fugitive  from  any  of  the  Southern  States  was 
discharged  from  service  in  direct  violation  of  the 
original  compact  between  the  States.  Consequently 
the  general  opinion  in  the  South  was  that  the  State 
was  accordingly  released  from  her  obligation  be- 
cause the  ends  for  which  the  government  was  insti- 


70  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

tuted  were  defeated.  Such  was  the  prevailing  sen- 
timent in  the  South,  and  South  CaroHna  took  the 
initiative  in  giving  it  forceful  expression  in  the 
famous  Secession  Ordinance. 

On  November  13,  i860,  the  Legislature  of  South 
Carolina  passed  an  act  calling  a  convention  of  the 
people  to  assemble  on  December  17,  i860,  and  pro- 
viding for  the  election  of  delegates  to  said  conven- 
tion, to  take  place  on  the  6th  day  of  December. 
These  were  history-making  days,  and  events  oc- 
curred with  marvelous  rapidity.  The  election  of 
delegates  was  duly  held;  and  just  eleven  days  aft- 
er the  election  the  convention  met  in  the  Baptist 
church  at  Columbia,  S.  C.  Mr.  D.  E.  Jamison  was 
elected  President  of  the  convention,  Mr.  Benjamin 
F.  Arthur  was  made  Clerk,  and  Mr.  John  A.  Inglis 
was  made  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Resolu- 
tions. Owing  to  a  rumor  that  there  was  an  epidemic 
of  smallpox  in  the  city,  the  convention  adjourned 
to  meet  in  Charleston,  S.  C,  on  the  next  day.  The 
convention  accordingly  resumed  its  session  in  St. 
Andrew's  Hall,  on  Broad  Street,  Charleston,  De- 
cember 18.  Only  two  days  were  required  for  dis- 
cussion and  planning;  for  on  Thursday,  December 
20,  i860,  the  historic  document  known  as  the  Ordi- 
nance of  Secession  was  adopted  by  a  "yea"  and 
"nay"  vote,  and  the  signatures  of  all  present  were  af- 
fixed thereto.  The  wildest  enthusiasm  prevailed  in 
the  Hall;  and  the  great  crowds  in  waiting  on  the 
outside,  hearing  of  the  adoption  of  the  paper,  caught 


Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Citizen.  71 

up  the  enthusiastic  cry,  and  soon  the  streets  of  the 
entire  city  were  echoing  with  the  news  of  South 
Carolina's  new  Declaration  of  Independence.  Fol- 
lowing is  the  Ordinance  of  Secession  as  passed  by 
that  convention: 

SECESSION. 
An  Ordinance 

TO  DISSCHLVE  THE  UNION  BETWEEN  THE  StaTE  OF  SOUTH  CARO- 
LINA AND  OTHER  STATES  UNITED  WITH  HER  UNDER  THE  COM- 
PACT  ENTITLED   "tHE    CONSTITUTION   OF  THE   UNITED    STATES   OF 

America." 

We,  the  people  of  the  State  of.  South  Carolina,  in  conven- 
tion assembled,  do  declare  and  ordain,  and  it  is  hereby  declared 
and  ordained. 

That  the  ordinance  adopted  by  us  in  convention  on  the 
twenty-third  day  of  May,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thou- 
sand seven  hundred  and  eighty-eight,  whereby  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States  of  America  was  ratified  and  also  all 
acts  and  parts  of  acts  of  the  General  Assembly  of  this  State 
ratifying  amendments  of  the  said  Constitution  are  hereby 
repealed,  and  that  the  union  now  existing  between  South 
Carolina  and  other  States  under  the  name  of  the  United 
States  of  America  is  hereby  dissolved.     " 

Signed :  D.  F.  Jamison,  delegate  from  Barnwell  and  Presi- 
dent of  Convention;  Thomas  Chiles  Perrin,  J.  N.  Whitner, 
John  M.  Timmons,  James  C.  Furman,  Edward  Noble,  James 
L.  Orr,  Francis  Hugh  Wardlaw,  P.  E.  Duncan,  J.  H.  Wilson, 
J.  P.  Reed,  R.  G.  M.  Dunavant,  W.  K.  Easley,  Thomas  Thomp- 
son, R.  F.  Simpson,  James  Parsons  Carroll,  James  Harrison, 
David  Lewis  Wardlaw,  W.  Pinckney  Shingler,  William  Gregg, 
W.  H.  Campbell,  Benjamin  Franklin  Mauldin,  Peter  B.  Bon- 
neau,  Andrew  J.  Hammond,  John  McKee,  Lewis  Malone  Ayer, 
Jr.,  John  P.  Richardson,  James  Tompkins,  Thomas  W.  Moore, 
W.  Peronneau  Finley,  John  L.  Manning,  James  C.  Smyly,  Rich- 
ard Woods,  J.  J.  Brabham,  John  J.  Ingram,  John  Hugh  Means, 
A.  Q.  Dunavant,  John  Alfred  Calhoun,  Edgar  W.  Charles, 


72  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

William  Strother  Lyles,  John  A.  Inglis,  John  Izard  Middle- 
ton,  Julius  A.  Dargan,  Henry  Campbell  Davis,  Henry  Mclver, 
Benjamin  E.  Sessions,  Isaac  D.  Wilson,  John  Buchanan, 
Stephen  Jackson,  H.  I.  Caughman,  T.  J.  Withers,  E.  M.  Sea- 
brook,  R.  W.  Barnwell,  John  G.  Geiger,  James  Chesnut,  Jr., 
John  J.  Wannamaker,  B.  H.  Rutledge,  Paul  Quattlebaum, 
Joseph  Brevard  Kershaw,  Elias  B.  Scott,  Edward  McCrady, 
W.  B.  Rowell,  Thomas  W.  Beaty,  Joseph  E.  Jenkins,  Francis 
J.  Porcher,  Chesley  D.  Evans,  William  J.  Ellis,  Langdon 
Cheves,  T.  L.  Gourdin,  William  W.  Harllee,  R.  L.  Crawford, 
George  Rhodes,  John  S.  Palmer,  A.  W.  Bethea,  W.  C.  Cau- 
then.  A,  G.  Magrath,  John  L.  Nowell,  E.  W.  Goodwin,  D.  P. 
Robinson,  William  Porcher  Miles,  John  S.  O'Hear,  William 
D.  Johnson,  H.  C.  Young,  John  Townsend,  John  G.  Landrum, 
Alex  McLeod,  H.  W.  Garlington,  W.  Ferguson  Hutson,  B.  B. 
Foster,  John  P.  Kinard,  John  D.  Williams,  W.  F.  De  Saus- 
sure,  Benjamin  F.  Kilgore,  Robert  Moorman,  W.  D.  Watts, 
William  Hopkins,  James  H.  Carlisle,  Joseph  Caldwell,  Thomas 
Wier,  James  H.  Adams,  Simpson  Bobo,  Simeon  Fair,  Joseph 
Daniel  Pope,  Maxey  Gregg,  William  Curtis,  Thomas  Worth 
Glover,  C  P.  Brown,  John  H.  Kinsler,  H.  D.  Green,  Lawrence 
M.  Keitt,  John  M.  Shingler,  Ephraim  M.  Clarke,  Matthew  P. 
Mayes,  Donald  Rowe  Barton,  Daniel  DuPre,  Alex  H.  Brown, 
Thomas  Reese  English,  Sr.,  William  Hunter,  A.  Mazyck,  E. 
S.  P.  Bellinger,  Albertus  Chambers  Spain,  Andrew  F.  Lewis, 
William  Cain,  Merrick  E.  Cam,  Robert  N.  Gourdin,  Robert 
A.  Thompson,  P.  G.  Snowden,  E.  R.  Henderson,  H.  W.  Con- 
nor, William  S.  Grisham,  George  W.  Seabrook,  Peter  Stokes, 
Theodore  D.  Wagner,  John  Maxwell,  John  Jenkins,  Daniel 
Flud,  R.  Barnwell  Rhett,  John  E.  Frampton,  R.  J.  Davant, 
David  C.  Appleby,  C.  G.  Memminger,  Gabriel  Manigault, 
John  Julius  Pringle  Smith,  Alex  M.  Foster,  Isaac  W.  Hayne, 
J.  S.  Sims,  William  Blackburn  Wilson,  John  H.  Honour, 
William  H.  Gist,  Robert  T.  Allison,  Richard  De  Treville, 
James  JefFeries,  Samuel  Rainey,  Thomas  M.  Hanckel,  Anthony 
W.  Dozier,  A.  Baxter  Springs,  A.  W.  Burnet,  John  G.  Pressley, 
A.  I.  Barron,  Thomas  Y.  Simons,  R.  C.  Logan,  A.  T.  Darby, 
L.  W.  Spratt,  Francis  S.  Parker,  Williams  Middleton,  F.  D. 


Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Citizen.  73 

Richardson,  Benjamin  Faneuil  Dunkin,  J.  M.  Gadberry,  Sam- 
uel Taylor  Atkinson,  Benjamin  W.  Lawton,  E.  M.  Seabrook. 
Attest:  Benjamin  F.  Arthur,  Clerk  of  the  Convention. 

Dr.  Carlisle  was  a  patriotic  citizen.  The  motive 
that  actuated  him  in  placing  his  signature  to  the 
Ordinance  of  Secession  was  the  same  motive  that 
actuated  all  his  subsequent  activities  as  a  citizen — 
conscientious  patriotism. 

In  the  Library  of  Congress,  at  Washington,  is  a 
series  of  mural  decorations  illustrating  "The  Vir- 
tues"—"Fortitude,"  "Justice,"  "Patriotism,"  "Tem- 
perance," "Prudence,"  "Industry,"  and  "Concord." 
The  one  representing  patriotism  is  the  figure  of  a 
woman  about  five  and  one-half  feet  high,  clad  in 
drapery  and  standing  out  on  a  red  background. 
She  is  represented  as  feeding  an  eagle,  the  emblem 
of  America,  from  a  golden  bowl.  The  purpose  is 
to  symbolize  the  nourishment  given  by  patriotism 
to  the  spirit  of  a  nation.  Sismondi  records  that  a 
noble,  patriotic  young  mother  gave  to  a  starving 
soldier  the  milk  that  her  half -famished  child  re- 
quired and  sent  him,  thus  refreshed  and  strength- 
ened, to  defend  the  walls  of  her  beleaguered  city. 

After  all,  there  is  a  close  connection  between 
patriotism  and  religion.  Patriotism  may  be  defined 
as  the  love  of  one's  country  or  the  passion  which 
aims  to  serve  one's  country.  Our  devotion  to  God 
and  our  love  for  our  country  are  kindred  impulses. 
We  are  told  that  when  Deborah  was  judge  of  Is- 
rael she  planned  a  campaign  against  the  Canaanites 


74  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

on  the  north  who  fought  under  Jabin.  She  called 
for  a  brave  and  daring  warrior,  Barak,  of  the  tribe 
of  Naphtali,  the  closest  neighbor  to  the  enemy. 
Upon  her  promise  to  accompany  him,  he  collected 
an  army  of  ten  thousand  and  proceeded  to  meet  the 
approaching  army  of  Jabin.  After  the  battle  Deb- 
orah broke  forth  in  the  strains  of  a  lofty  hymn  of 
triumph,  giving  praise  to  God  for  the  signal  victo- 
ries that  had  attended  their  efforts.  However,  she 
kept  her  highest  eulogies  for  the  tribes  of  Zebulon 
and  Naphtali,  saying  that  these  were  "the  people 
who  jeoparded  their  lives  unto  death  In  the  high 
places  in  the  field." 

The  human  heart  throbs  with  deepest  sympathy 
when  reading  the  story  of  the  Babylonish  captivity 
of  the  Jews.  When  mockingly  asked  to  sing  their 
songs  for  the  amusement  of  their  captors,  the  lonely 
and  disconsolate  Jew  replied:  "How  can  I  sing  the 
Lord's  songs  in  a  strange  land?"  And,  hanging  his 
harp  on  the  willows  that  grew  upon  the  banks  of  the 
Babylonian  rivers,  he  exclaimed  in  deepest  pathos: 
"If  I  forget  thee,  O  Jerusalem,  let  my  right  hand 
forget  her  cunning.  If  I  do  not  remember  thee,  let 
my  tongue  cleave  to  the  roof  of  my  mouth." 

To  be  safe  and  sound,  patriotism  must  have  its 
inspiration  in  religion.  Real  patriotism  is  almost 
synonymous  with  brotherhood.  There  cannot  be 
real  brotherhood  unless  it  be  founded  on  the  Father- 
hood of  God.  So,  after  all,  national  and  social  per- 
manency rests  upon  faith  In  God  and  In  the  eternal 


Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Citizen.  75 

verities.  In  the  teaching  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  we 
have  ultimate  truth,  and  in  his  life  all  human  rela- 
tions are  illustrated.  His  system  is  a  great  ocean 
of  truth  whose  waters  bathe  the  shores  of  every 
continent  and  island  of  human  life  and  find  their 
way  into  every  inlet  and  craggy  nook  of  human 
need. 

The  Word  of  God  is  the  Magna  Charta  of  our 
liberties.  On  the  hill  overlooking  the  bay  where 
the  Mayflower  first  cast  her  anchor  stands  an  elo- 
quent monument,  which  some  one  has  pronounced 
at  once  "a  miracle,  a  parable,  and  a  prophecy — a 
miracle  of  artistic  skill,  a  parable  of  Christian  civ- 
ilization, and  a  prophecy  of  coming  national  glory." 
Seated  on  the  corners  of  the  pedestal  are  four  fig- 
ures representing  law,  morality,  freedom,  and  edu- 
cation. Far  above  on  a  lofty  shaft  of  granite  is  the 
figure  representing  faith,  with  the  open  Bible  in 
one  hand  and  the  index  finger  of  the  other  pointing 
away  to  the  throne  of  God.  How  sublime  is  this 
conception!  Such  must  ever  be  the  ideals  of  the 
patriotism  that  is  to  preserve  national  life  and  char- 
acter. 

Real  patriotism  is  prospective  as  well  as  retro- 
spective. We  usually  associate  it  with  devotion  to 
the  flag  and  the  commemoration  of  the  deeds  of  our 
heroes.  The  higher  patriotism  seeks  to  right  the 
wrongs  that  afflict  our  people,  to  elevate  all  human 
lives,  and  to  alleviate  all  human  suffering.  There 
are  gigantic  evils  that  infest  our  land,  and  we  are 


76  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

called  to  a  truceless  war  of  extermination.  There 
is  the  giant  of  illiteracy.  South  Carolina  occupies 
an  unenviable  position  from  the  standpoint  of  edu- 
cation. There  are  literally  thousands  of  our  people 
who  can  neither  read  nor  write.  The  hope  of  de- 
mocracy lies  in  the  education  of  our  citizenship. 
The  commonwealth  will  never  be  safe  while  such 
vast  numbers  of  our  people  remain  uneducated. 
The  great  peril  of  the  State  is  not  the  demagogue, 
but  the  ignorant  masses  back  of  him  whose  gulli- 
bility makes  him  possible.  If  our  people  are  to 
enjoy  the  benefits  of  freedom,  if  the  people  are  to 
have  in  their  hands  the  destiny  of  the  institutions 
of  the  State,  if  they  are  to  fulfill  their  mission  in 
the  world,  they  must  be  educated.  And  there  is 
the  social  evil.  Our  energies  must  be  enlisted  in 
the  interest  of  the  campaign  against  the  double 
standard  of  morality,  and  the  "white  life  for  two'* 
must  be  our  battle  cry.  The  double  standard  of 
morality  is  one  of  the  greatest  perils  of  the  modern 
home,  and  it  imperils  our  whole  social  fabric. 

Then  there  is  the  gigantic  gambling  evil.  It  is 
like  a  great  river  running  into  a  deep  cesspool  of 
iniquity  that  is  ever  cursing  humanity  by  sending 
up  its  stench  of  moral  miasma  from  stagnant  and 
putrid  waters,  breeding  disease  and  death  in  the 
life  of  peoples  and  nations.  Running  into  this  river 
are  many  tributaries  which  swell  the  deadly  current 
ere  it  empties  itself  into  its  direful  destination. 
There  is  governmental  gambling  for  revenue,  gam- 


Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Citizen.  ^^ 

bling  in  society  for  amusement,  gambling  in  sports, 
gambling  in  business  for  the  increase  of  wealth,  and 
gambling  in  benevolent  circles  for  purposes  of  so- 
called  charity.  In  fact,  this  evil  seems  to  have  in- 
sinuated itself  into  every  department  of  our  social, 
civic,  and  commercial  life. 

Finally,  there  is  the  liquor  fiend.  If  patriotism 
means  love  of  our  country,  if  it  means  the  love  of 
our  fellow  beings,  then  let  us  wage  a  relentless  war- 
fare against  this  deadly  enemy  of  our  people.  In 
all  ages  of  the  world  and  among  all  the  nations  of 
the  earth  intemperance  has  occupied  a  foremost 
place  among  the  forces  that  have  operated  in  the 
disorganization  of  nations,  the  overthrow  of  king- 
doms, and  the  destruction  of  empires.  Intemper- 
ance is  not  only  universal  in  that  it  affects  all  na- 
tions, but  in  its  effects  upon  the  individual  as  well. 
It  affects  him  in  mind,  body,  and  spirit.  It  injures 
him  in  body  by  burning  out  the  tissues,  thus  ren- 
dering the  victim  the  easy  prey  of  deadly  disease. 
It  injures  the  mind  by  blunting  the  perceptive  pow- 
ers, thus  disqualifying  him  for  making  the  acute 
distinctions  between  right  and  wrong,  truth  and 
error,  righteousness  and  iniquity.  It  injures  him 
in  spirit  by  lowering  the  moral  tone,  degrading  the 
spiritual  nature,  and  weakening  his  higher  powers, 
thus  rendering  him  incapable  of  living  in  touch  with 
the  eternal  realm  or  of  holding  fellowship  with  the 
divine.  Thank  God  we  are  fighting  a  winning  bat- 
tle against  King  Alcohol !    The  Qiurch,  the  school. 


yS  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

and  the  State  have  marshaled  their  combined  forces 
for  a  war  of  extermination.  The  triple  alliance  is 
bound  to  win. 

Dr.  Carlisle  was  a  Christian  citizen.  His  simple 
faith  in  God  and  his  sincere  desire  to  emulate  the 
Man  of  Galilee  produced  a  high  type  of  citizenship. 
Jesus  taught  the  highest  type  of  citizenship.  This 
he  did  by  inculcating  the  elements  of  the  loftiest 
character.  In  laying  down  the  principles  to  be  in- 
corporated in  the  character  of  those  who  aspired  to 
citizenship  in  his  kingdom,  he  said: 

"Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit:  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom 
of  heaven.  Blessed  are  they  that  mourn:  for  they  shall  be 
comforted.  Blessed  are  the  meek:  for  they  shall  inherit  the 
earth.  Blessed  are  they  which  do  hunger  and  thirst  after  right- 
eousness :  for  they  shall  be  filled.  Blessed  are  the  merciful : 
for  they  shall  obtain  mercy.  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart: 
for  they  shall  see  God.  Blessed  are  they  which  are  persecuted 
for  righteousness'  sake:  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 
Blessed  are  ye  when  men  shall  revile  you,  and  persecute  you, 
and  shall  say  all  manner  of  evil  against  you  falsely,  for  my 
sake.  Rejoice,  and  be  exceeding  glad :  for  great  is  your  reward 
in  heaven :  for  so  persecuted  they  the  prophets  which  were  be- 
fore you." 

Jesus  taught  the  highest  type  of  citizenship  by 
his  great  doctrine  of  brotherhood.  He  planned  for 
a  brotherhood  that  reaches  beyond  national  lines,  a 
citizenship  of  the  world  in  the  presence  of  which 
there  is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  barbarian,  Scythian, 
bond  or  free,  but  only  manhood  with  all  its  rights 
and  wrongs.  The  spirit  of  the  Good  Samaritan 
must  give  tone  to  all  our  relationships.     He  also 


Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Citizen.  79 

taught  the  highest  type  of  citizenship  by  his  doc- 
trine of  service.  The  three  great  laws  of  life  are 
the  law  of  love,  the  law  of  sacrifice,  and  the  law  of 
service.  The  standard  of  human  greatness  is  serv- 
ice. We  serve  only  as  we  sacrifice  for  others;  we 
sacrifice  for  others  only  as  we  love  them. 

Dr.  Carlisle  incorporated  all  these  laws  in  his  own 
character  and  illustrated  them  in  his  own  life,  yet 
he  never  boasted  of  his  moral  or  spiritual  attain- 
ments. He  was  South  Carolina's  greatest  citizen; 
but  if  he  ever  entertained  such  a  thought  about 
himself,  no  one  ever  suspected  it.  His  citizenship 
was  inspiring  and  enduring. 

In  December,  1850,  Benjamin  Wofford  died. 
He  left  by  his  will  one  hundred  thousand  dollars 
"for  the  purpose  of  establishing  and  endowing  a 
college  for  literary,  classical,  and  scientific  educa- 
tion, to  be  located  in  his  native  district  and  to  be 
under  the  control  and  management  of  the  Confer- 
ence of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  his  na- 
tive State."  A  charter  was  duly  secured;  and  the 
trustees  held  their  first  meeting  to  organize  under  it 
at  Newberry  November  24,  1853.  The  trustees  at 
this  meeting  elected  the  following  faculty:  W.  M. 
Wightman,  D.D.,  President;  Rev.  Albert  M.  Shipp, 
A.M.,  Professor  of  English  Literature ;  David  Dun- 
can, A.M.,  Professor  of  Ancient  Languages;  James 
H.  Carlisle,  A.M.,  Professor  of  Mathematics;  and 
Warren  DuPre,  A.M.,  Professor  of  Natural  Sci- 
ence.    Thus  was  established  the  institution  which 


8o  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

was  destined  to  be  the  center  of  the  intellectual  life 
of  South  Carolina  Methodism  and  which  was  to  be 
a  potent  influence  in  the  production  of  the  highest 
type  of  citizenship  for  the  Palmetto  Commonwealth. 

From  1854  the  history  of  Wofford  College  was 
largely  determined  by  James  H.  Carlisle.  In  1875 
he  was  elected  President  of  the  institution.  At  dif- 
ferent times  he  taught  mathematics,  astronomy, 
ethics,  civics,  and  the  English  Bible,  He  was  more 
thoroughly  conversant  with  South  Carolina  history 
than  any  other  man.  He  was  the  author  of  an 
excellent  textbook  on  astronomy  entitled  "The 
Young  Astronomer."  Time  and  again  flattering 
offers  from  other  institutions  were  made  to  this 
prince  of  educators,  but  to  all  of  them  he  ever  gave 
a  courteous  refusal,  preferring  to  serve  that  insti- 
tution of  his  Church  to  which  he  consecrated  his 
lofty  character  and  resplendent  abilities. 

Sometime  ago  a  Presbyterian  minister,  himself 
a  college  president  and  an  educator  of  no  mean 
ability,  said  to  me:  "Why  is  it  that  all  Wofford 
men  are  so  wildly  enthusiastic  over  Dr.  Carlisle?" 
I  replied  by  saying  that  I  never  stood  in  his  pres- 
ence without  feeling  deep  down  in  my  soul  a  deter- 
mination to  be  a  man.  It  is  the  admiration  and 
homage  instinctively  paid  to  imperial  personality. 

A  distinguished  Wofford  graduate  who  has  trav- 
eled extensively  and  who  has  been  permitted  to  visit 
kings  and  emperors  Is  said  to  have  remarked  that 
he  was  unable  to  understand  why  these  potentates 


Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Citizen.  8i 

made  no  more  impression  upon  him  than  they  did. 
His  final  solution  was  that  he  had  lived  four  years 
with  James  H.  Carlisle  and  that  in  all  his  travels 
he  had  found  nowhere  a  man  equal  in  personal  char- 
acter to  Wofford's  idolized  President. 

The  anniversary  of  Dr.  Carlisle's  birthday  is  a 
great  occasion  at  Wofford  College  and  in  the  entire 
city  of  Spartanburg,  the  Athens  of  South  Carolina. 
Sometimes  the  celebration  is  characterized  by  touch- 
ing incidents.  A  few  years  ago  one  of  the  college 
boys,  presenting  the  beloved  President  with  a  token 
of  love  and  esteem,  said : 

Dr.  Carlisle,  you  know  how  much  the  students  of  Wofford 
College  and  the  Fitting  School  love  you.  You  know  that  every 
one  of  us  has  a  place  set  aside  in  his  heart  that  is  dedicated  to 
you.  I  need  not  remind  you  of  that.  My  purpose  and  privilege 
this  morning  is  to  present  to  you  this  cane,  a  token  of  remem- 
brance from  these  your  boys  on  this  your  birthday.  Read 
closely,  Doctor,  and  you  will  find  beneath  the  inscription  on 
this  cane  some  unwritten  words  which  will  tell  you  of  our 
love  and  appreciation. 

In  reply  the  good  Doctor  said: 

If  I  could  make  a  speech  under  such  circumstances  as  these, 
you  would  think  less  of  me,  and  I  should  think  less  of  myself. 
A  few  days  ago,  while  walking  across  the  campus,  I  recalled 
that  sixty  years  ago  I  graduated.  In  that  cemetery  lie  some 
of  my  colleagues  of  the  years  that  are  gone.  A  few  years  at 
most,  and  I  shall  be  lying  with  them.  In  the  years  to  come 
some  old  Wofford  boy  may  visit  the  spot  and,  it  may  be,  pull 
away  the  weeds.  If  he  shall  say  as  he  stands  there,  "He  al- 
ways meant  to  do  me  good,"  I  think  I  shall  rest  as  peacefully 
as  if  I  were  lying  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

6 


82  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

It  is  impossible  to  describe  the  occasion.  As  Dr. 
Carlisle  resumed  his  seat,  men  and  boys  were  weep- 
ing tears  of  gratitude  for  the  life  that  meant  so 
much  to  them.  Dr.  Henry  N.  Snyder  then  arose 
and  said: 

We  are  getting  ready  to  celebrate  fifty  years  of  history. 
As  we  look  at  what  Wofford  College  has  been  and  is,  we  must 
admit  that  there  are  many  other  institutions  richer  in  material 
equipment  and  endowment.  But  none  of  them  have  had  Dr. 
Carlisle,  and  in  the  fifty  years  of  the  great  life  that  he  has 
poured  into  the  college  we  count  ourselves  the  richest  of  them 
all.  The  endowment  of  his  lofty  character  and  inspiring  ex- 
ample is  ours,  and  the  faculty  desire  to  set  aside  this  day  that 
they  and  the  students  of  the  college  may  think  with  loving 
gratitude  and  high  appreciation  and  deep  reverence  of  what  this 
Christian  scholar  and  princely  gentleman  has  been  and  is  to  us. 
In  doing  this  we  honor  ourselves,  not  him,  and  we  beg  that  he 
accept  this  poor  tribute  as  but  an  inadequate  expression  of  our 
love. 

At  four  o'clock  that  afternoon  more  than  a  hun- 
dred of  the  leading  business  men  of  the  city  left 
their  stores  and  offices  and  marched  to  his  residence 
to  bear  testimony  of  their  love  and  admiration. 
Hon.  S.  J.  Simpson  was  spokesman.  Addressing 
the  honored  educator,  he  said : 

Dr.  Carlisle,  these,  your  neighbors  and  friends,  learned  this 
morning  that  you  to-day  completed  your  seventy-ninth  year; 
and  they  have  come  to  extend  to  you  their  heartiest  congratu- 
lations and  to  testify  to  the  love  and  esteem  that  they,  in  com- 
mon with  all  the  people  of  this  community,  of  every  name  and 
age,  have  for  you.  For  many  years  your  name,  because  of  the 
distinguished  ability,  the  exalted  character,  the  self-denying 
service  to  others,  and  the  Christian  humility  that  made  it  great, 


Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Citizen.  83 

has  been  an  inspiration  to  old  and  young  alike  and  an  impelling 
incentive  to  higher  living  wherever  it  has  been  known.  Let 
me  express  the  hope  for  myself  and  for  these  and  all  our 
people  that  He  who  doeth  all  things  well  may  grant  you  many 
years  of  service  to  Him  and  to  your  fellow  men  and  during 
these  years  all  the  comforts  and  pleasures  you  so  richly  de- 
serve. 

Bishop  Candler  once  said  that  he  would  rather 
his  boy  would  simply  go  into  a  room  where  Dr. 
Carlisle's  old  coat  was  hung  up  than  to  be  under 
the  real  tuition  of  many  a  so-called  great  educator. 

Since  the  days  of  the  great  Teacher  of  Galilee 
the  world  has  had  no  clearer  or  more  convincing 
illustration  of  the  power  of  personality  in  teaching 
than  that  afforded  in  the  record  of  James  H.  Car- 
lisle. The  prime  conception  of  modern  education  is 
the  personal  power  of  the  teacher.  President  Gar- 
field's definition  of  a  university,  "Mark  Hopkins  at 
one  end  of  a  log  and  a  student  at  the  other,"  may 
be  an  exaggeration,  but  in  it  lies  the  true  philosophy 
of  education.  The  true  purpose  of  education  is  not 
to  adorn  the  life  with  the  gaudy  externals  of  culture, 
not  to  render  the  life  more  valuable  in  the  money 
market,  but  it  is  the  development  of  character. 
What  we  should  seek  in  education  is  not  chiefly 
learning  on  the  recipient's  part  nor  the  acceptance 
of  a  certain  creed,  but  character.  And  this  is  to 
be  character  made,  not  according  to  any  particular 
mold,  but  in  an  atmosphere  of  freedom  and  fullness. 
This  is  accomplished,  not  in  lessons,  not  in  organ- 
ization, but  in  the  personal  influence  of  the  teacher 


84  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

over  the  pupil.  Character  is  not  a  matter  of  spon- 
taneous combustion.  Spiritual  activity  is  kindled 
by  a  spark  from  the  burning  heart  of  another.  Mind 
acts  upon  mind,  and  feeling  upon  feeling.  Enthusi- 
asm is  kindled  by  the  spark  that  flashes  from  eye 
to  eye,  and  courage  passes  from  the  strong  to  the 
weak. 

The  grace  of  humility  had  a  perfect  illustration 
in  Dr.  Carlisle.  It  is  hard  to  realize  that  a  man 
could  be  in  possession  of  such  imperial  greatness 
without  being  conscious  of  it ;  but  if  the  good  Doc- 
tor ever  realized  how  great  he  was,  his  deportment 
never  betrayed  the  thought.  His  extreme  modesty 
sometimes  rendered  the  situation  embarrassing. 
He  and  the  late  Dr.  Baer,  of  Charleston,  were  warm 
personal  friends.  It  is  said  that  once  Dr.  Carlisle 
went  to  the  city  to  deliver  an  address  upon  a  special 
occasion  arranged  by  the  ladies.  He  made  one  of 
his  characteristic  speeches.  The  ladies  crowded 
around  him  after  the  address,  overwhelming  him 
with  their  encomiums.  The  modest  gentleman 
stood  speechless  while  the  ladies  heaped  their  ad- 
jectives upon  him.  On  the  way  home,  so  the  story 
goes,  the  speaker  said  to  his  friend  Baer:  "Doctor, 
what  Is  a  man  to  do  when  he  makes  a  plain,  simple 
talk  and  the  people  are  so  profuse  in  their  compli- 
ments?'* The  candid  Dr.  Baer  replied:  "Say  noth- 
ing and  look  silly,  as  you  did,  Doctor." 

The  honors  that  came  to  Dr.  Carlisle  were  always 
unsought.    Being  modest  and  unassuming,  the  very 


Dr,  Carlisle  as  a  Citizen.  85 

idea  of  seeking  personal  honor  seemed  utterly  for- 
eign to  his  noble  nature.  He  was  elected  a  mem- 
ber of  the  first  General  Conference  of  his  Church 
of  which  laymen  were  members  and  was  elected  to 
each  succeeding  one  as  long  as  he  felt  able  to  go. 
He  was  a  delegate  from  his  Church  to  several  Ecu- 
menical Conferences.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Se- 
cession Convention,  signing  the  famous  Ordinance. 
He  was  a  Representative  in  the  last  Confederate 
Legislature,  1863-64.  These  were  the  first  and  only 
political  offices  he  held,  though  time  and  again  he 
had  been  urged  to  accept  positions  of  honor  and 
trust  in  the  State  and  nation. 

Dr.  Carlisle  was  a  man  of  deep  spirituality.  The 
secret  of  his  great  strength  of  character  lay  in  his 
realization  of  eternal  verities.  Spirituality  is  the 
consciousness  of  the  Divine  Presence.  The  spiritual 
man  is  the  man  filled  with  a  sense  of  the  presence 
of  God  and  of  the  force  of  spiritual  laws  here  and 
now,  convinced  of  an  immediate  and  conscious  rela- 
tion between  himself  and  God.  Dr.  Carlisle  was  a 
living  exponent  of  spiritual  truth.  No  man  could 
come  in  personal  touch  with  him  without  acknowl- 
edging the  reality  of  the  Christian  religion.  It  is 
said  of  Fenelon  that  he  had  such  communion  with 
God  that  his  very  face  shone.  Lord  Peterborough, 
a  skeptic,  was  obliged  to  spend  the  night  with  him 
at  an  inn.  In  the  morning  he  rushed  away,  saying: 
"If  I  stay  another  night  with  that  man,  I  shall  be 
a  Christian  in  spite  of  myself.'*     So  Wofford's 


86  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

adored  President  was  ever  a  spiritual  magnet,  draw- 
ing out  the  highest  and  noblest  in  the  young  men 
who  came  under  his  influence.  His  stately  form, 
his  graceful  movement,  his  loving  yet  firm  voice, 
and  his  benign  face  blended  in  an  imperative  call  to 
young  manhood  that  found  a  response  in  every 
heart  that  knew  him.  Such  a  character  stands  as  a 
mighty  bulwark,  resisting  the  encroachments  of  the 
tides  of  commercialism  and  materialism  beating  in 
upon  us.  The  day  may  come  when  the  swelling 
tides  may  break  over  and  flood  the  sacred  spot  where 
he  lived ;  but  his  spirit  will  still  cry  from  the  depths, 
and  his  memory  will  still  call  to  the  highest. 

At  the  age  of  thirty-one  Sir  Christopher  Wren, 
the  great  architect,  was  commissioned  to  rebuild 
St.  Paul's  Cathedral.  His  task  was  completed 
when  he  was  sixty.  It  is  said  that  when  he  became 
old  and  feeble  he  asked  to  be  carried  once  a  year 
to  see  the  building.  Over  the  north  of  the  cathedral 
is  his  memorial  tablet  bearing  that  famous  Latin 
inscription,  ^'Lector,  si  monumentum  requiris,  cir- 
cumspice"  ("Reader,  if  you  would  behold  his  mon- 
ument, look  about  you").  If  you  seek  the  monu- 
ment of  Dr.  Carlisle,  look  about  you  in  Church  and 
State  and  see  the  mighty  host  of  Wofford's  men  of 
sterling  worth  whose  lives  are  a  benediction  to  the 
nation,  and  you  will  find  his  enduring  memorial. 

"Sunset  and  evening  star, 

And  one  clear  call  for  me! 
And  may  there  be  no  moaning  of  the  bar 
When  I  put  out  to  sea. 


Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Citizen.  87 

But  such  a  tide  as  moving  seems  asleep, 

Too  full  for  sound  and  foam, 
IWhen  that  which  drew  from  out  the  boundless  deep 

Turns  again  home. 

Twilight  and  evening  bell. 

And  after  that  the  dark; 
And  may  there  be  no  sadness  of  farewell 

When  I  embark. 

For  though  from  out  our  bourne  of  Time  and  Place 

The  flood  may  bear  me  far, 
I  hope  to  see  my  Pilot  face  to  face 

When  I  have  crossed  the  bar." 


CHAPTER  IV. 
The  Wofford  Chapel  Hour. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
The  Wofford  Chapel  Hour. 

BY  DR.  HENRY  NELSON  SNYDER,  PRESIDENT  WOFFORD  COLLEGE. 

When  Dr.  James  H.  Carlisle's  students  heard 
him  make  a  public  address,  they  usually  came  away 
with  the  feeling  that,  while  the  address  was  a  good 
one,  such  as  perhaps  nobody  but  Dr.  Carlisle  himself 
could  make,  it  did  not  somehow  represent  the  Doc- 
tor at  his  best.  "His  best"  they  heard  from  the 
rostrum  in  the  old  chapel  when  they  gathered  for 
the  short  religious  services  at  the  beginning  of  the 
day's  work.  And  they  were  right  in  their  estimate. 
The  college  rostrum  was  his  throne  of  power;  and, 
however  great  his  utterances  might  be  on  set  occa- 
sions before  the  general  public,  his  ten-minute  talks 
to  "his  boys"  had  a  virtue  of  intimate  appeal  and  a 
power  of  permanent  influence  that  his  other  ad- 
dresses did  not  possess. 

In  the  first  place,  his  students  felt  that  he  was 
talking  directly  to  each  of  them  personally,  and 
they  knew  that  the  talk  grew  out  of  a  specific  knowl- 
edge of  their  lives  and  was  warm  with  the  passion 
to  help  them  find  their  own  best  and  apply  it.  In 
the  next  place,  in  their  daily  contact  in  the  class- 
room, on  the  campus,  and  in  his  study,  they  realized 
the  essential  greatness  of  his  personality  and  the 
high  spiritual  quality  of  his  character.    The  result 

(91) 


92  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

was  that  when  he  spoke  in  words  from  the  rostrum 
there  also  spoke  with  a  power  stronger  than  that  of 
mere  words  the  greatness  of  his  personality  and  the 
quality  of  his  character.  This  revelation  of  himself 
he  seemed  not  fully  to  make  anywhere  else  than  on 
the  familiar  rostrum.  Then,  too,  when  he  addressed 
them  he  seemed  in  his  life  and  person  as  he  stood 
before  them  the  very  incarnation  of  the  ideals  he 
presented  in  such  searching  power  of  appeal  and  in 
such  a  vivid,  moving  quality  of  phrasing. 

His  large,  imposing  figure,  gray  hair  and  beard, 
an  eye  that  softened  or  flamed  according  to  the 
emotion,  a  rare  impressiveness  of  gesture  and  bodily 
carriage,  and  a  voice  wonderfully  vibrant  not  only 
with  the  meaning  of  his  message  in  all  its  shades  of 
thought  and  feeling,  but  also  with  the  living  pres- 
ence of  his  whole  great  personality — ^these  are  the 
things  his  students  remember  when  they  have  for- 
gotten his  words.  Indeed,  to  them  these  his  words 
seem  strangely  pallid,  remote  echoes  of  what  they 
actually  heard,  until  they  restore  in  the  imagination 
the  living  presence  of  the  man  as  he  spoke  them. 

His  students  also  recall  that  his  method  was  not 
to  take  a  subject  and  develop  it  logically,  with  care- 
ful regard  to  its  intellectual  relationships.  It  is  to 
be  doubted  whether  any  one  of  them  can  really  re- 
member any  particular  line  of  thought  or  the  whole 
of  any  address  he  ever  made  from  the  college  ros- 
trum. What  they  remember  is  a  single  paragraph 
embodying  but  one  idea  or  an  unforgettable  sen- 


The  Wofford  Chapel  Hour.  93 

tence  that  awoke  aspirations  that  should  never  sleep 
again.  They  recall,  too,  that  the  phrasing  was  so 
simple,  the  illustrative  element  so  clear,  and  the 
application  so  inevitable  that  the  youngest  freshman 
understood  the  meaning  and  caught  something  of  its 
stirring  appeal. 

But  all  this  is  merely  to  say  that  when  we  put  into 
print  these  sentences  and  paragraphs  we  are  leaving 
out  that  which  gave  them  so  much  of  their  meaning 
— Dr.  Carlisle  himself.  For  example,  here  are  some 
sentences  that  only  begin  to  take  on  their  power  of 
appeal  when  we  recall  the  man  as  he  uttered  them — 
uttered  them  in  such  a  way  that  they  went  home 
with  a  rare  impressiveness : 

Onerous  duties  frequently  done  soon  sweeten  into  the  joys 
of  high  privilege. 

To  be  the  roommate  at  college  of  a  low,  vile  blackguard  is 
a  dear  price  to  pay  even  for  an  education. 

Three  men  commit  a  crime.  Each  is  guilty  of  the  whole  of 
it.    There  are  no  vulgar  fractions  in  sin. 

In  almost  every  case  a  young  man  fixes  in  college  the  two 
points  of  the  straight  line  that  determines  the  direction  of  his 
after  life. 

Character  and  scholarship  are  too  close  together  for  a 
young  man  to  build  up  the  one  and  at  the  same  time  tear  down 
the  other. 

There  is  danger  that  the  colleges  are  turning  out  every 
year  accomplished  tramps,  with  Latin  diplomas  in  their  hands, 
to  swell  the  vast  and  increasing  army  which  must  either  beg  or 
steal. 

One  may  conceal  some  crime  from  the  policeman,  the  gov- 
ernor, the  President.  Between  him  and  them  it  is  somewhat 
of  an  equal  contest ;  at  least  it  is  man  to  man.  But  woe  to 
him  that  enters  into  a  contest  with  his  Maker! 


94  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

If  this  country  is  ever  going  to  ruin,  it  will  not  be  from 
lack  of  Greek,  Latin,  and  mathematics,  but  from  lack  of  a 
basis  of  honest  character. 

When  character  once  begins  to  disintegrate,  there  is  no 
telling  just  where  the  breaking  will  show  itself. 

An  insult  is  never  an  excuse  for  taking  human  life.  Time 
will  cure  the  wound  of  the  insult,  but  will  only  deepen  the 
stain  of  the  blood. 

There  are  two  classes  of  college  students  that  cannot  afford 
to  spend  much  money — those  who  have  worked  hard  and  made 
their  own  money  and  those  for  whom  somebody  else  has 
worked  hard  and  made  money. 

The  management  of  that  perplexing  and  delicate  matter  of 
money  is  rightfully  the  invariable  test  of  character,  for  it  is 
at  this  point  that  scholar  and  sage  and  poet  and  schoolboy 
must  touch  common  life  and  bear  its  strain. 

A  man  may  be  able  to  tell  in  six  languages  why  he  cannot 
pay  his  debt;  but  the  debt,  if  ever  paid,  is  paid  in  solid,  ev- 
eryday American  gold  and  silver  and  greenbacks. 

While  you  are  planning  to  spend  a  dollar  foolishly,  your 
parents  are  planning  how  to  save  a  dollar  to  keep  you  in 
college. 

As  I  read  these  detached  sentences  over,  I  am 
aware  that  there  is  something  missing  and  that  only 
Dr.  Carlisle's  own  students  can  supply  what  is  miss- 
ing— ^the  Doctor  himself.  After  the  lapse  of  years 
they  will  go  back  to  that  chapel  hour  in  the  old  col- 
lege when  they  found  their  best  manhood,  not  only 
because  of  such  sentiments  as  these,  but  also  because 
of  the  presence  of  his  character  in  them.  Even  yet 
those  of  us  who  heard  them  may  be  helped  by  hear- 
ing them  again  in  memory  just  as  he  uttered  them. 
And  it  may  be  that  echoing  out  of  those  old  days  the 
following,  calling  to  mind  the  great  teacher,  will 


The  Wofford  Chapel  Hour.  95 

quicken  our  moral  energies  afresh  for  the  tasks  and 
duties  of  the  new  day  in  which  we  are  now  living: 

There  are  very  few  fears  for  the  young  man  when  the 
simple  faith  of  his  childhood  seems  to  be  shaken  by  the  trade 
winds  of  a  critical  attitude  or  by  the  gusts  of  earnest  inquiry 
or  even  by  a  cyclone  of  ardent  doubt,  provided  he  keep  the 
foundations  of  his  moral  character  firm  and  strong. 

When  a  young  man  begins  to  drink,  the  trouble  is  not  that 
he  will  become  a  drunkard.  But  I  have  fears  of  something 
far  worse.  Society  and  home  training  have  so  frowned  on 
drinking  that  every  step  a  young  man  takes  in  that  direction 
is  an  act  of  deception.  And  so  character  is  weakened  at  its 
most  vital  point,  and  he  becomes  a  liar  instead  of  a  drunkard 
or  more  probably  both. 

The  State  Legislature  has  about  ten  insignificant  places  to 
oflFer,  paying  from  forty  to  sixty  dollars.  There  are  four 
hundred  young  men  and  young  women  applying  for  these 
positions,  which  last  for  only  about  six  weeks.  Is  it  possible 
that  a  considerable  number  of  young  men  are  finding  in  life 
no  fixed  positions  for  which  they  are  thoroughly  prepared, 
but  are  floating  about  in  that  vast  mass  which  pauperizes 
society  and  enriches  jails?  At  any  rate,  I  have  a  faith,  as 
strong  as  my  faith  in  the  providence  of  God,  that  society  al- 
ways has  a  proper  place  for  that  young  man  who  can  pay  his 
way  in  force  and  integrity  of  character. 

So  many  young  men,  after  a  college  course  in  which  integ- 
rity has  been  shattered  and  character  tarnished,  write  to  me 
for  recommendations  to  responsible  positions,  implying  that 
a  word  from  me  can  supply  what  they  had  not  and  what  they 
did  their  best  to  destroy,  or  else  implying  that  the  higher 
qualities  of  character  and  conduct  had  grown  up  in  them,  as 
Jonah's  gourd,  in  a  night.  Not  so !  Not  so !  Will  you  never 
learn  that  the  high  matters  of  conduct  and  character  are  not 
the  fungus  growth  of  a  night,  of  two  nights,  of  three  nights, 
but  are  the  results  of  the  slow,  silent  processes  of  the  years, 
renovating,  purifying,  strengthening,  and  toughening  our  whole 
nature  through  strenuous  endeavor? 

Thomas  Carlyle  once  said  that  it  was  not  a  sign  of  strength 


96  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

when  a  man  had  convulsions  so  that  it  required  seven  men  to 
hold  him,  but  that  true  strength  is  the  daily,  earnest  bearing 
of  burdens  so  that  we  become  strong  under  them.  So  the 
real  student  is  not  the  one  who  has  "convulsions"  of  study  on 
stated  occasions — examinations  and  such  like — ^but  he  who  does 
his  daily  duties  earnestly,  manfully,  and  thus  by  a  gradual 
process  feels  himself  growing  and  expanding  under  them. 

I  am  not  talking  to  the  educated  white  young  man  who  can 
tell  an  outright  untruth.  There  is  nothing  in  him  to  talk  to. 
You  cannot  raise  him  with  a  lever,  because  there  is  nothing  to 
rest  your  lever  on.  Sometimes  your  leg  or  your  arm  "goes  to 
sleep,"  as  the  saying  is.  It  needs  vigorous  rubbing  or  a  sud- 
den strong  blow  to  wake  it  up.  Conscience,  alas!  sometimes 
also  "goes  to  sleep"  and  needs  a  sudden  strong  moral  shock 
to  wake  it  up ;  but  the  hardest  sleeping  conscience  to  wake  is 
that  which  has  been  lulled  by  habitual  lying. 

That's  a  wonderful  phrase  of  Nehemiah's  about  consulting 
with  himself.  To  hold  a  mass  meeting  of  the  powers  of  one's 
nature,  to  go  into  a  solemn  committee  of  the  whole  upon  the 
state  of  one's  self,  not  a  committee  in  which  the  anarchy  of 
one's  impulses,  appetites,  and  desires  holds  sway,  but  a  commit- 
tee presided  over  by  the  sovereign  will,  illuminated  by  the 
imperial  intellect,  and  guided  by  the  keenly  dividing  dictates 
of  the  divine  conscience — this  is  a  high  consultation  with 
one's  self. 

These  are  the  kind  of  things  we  heard  from  Dr. 
Carlisle.  Each  one  of  us  can  recall  others,  but  no- 
body that  never  sat  before  him  in  the  Wofford  chap- 
el can  appreciate  the  full  meaning  of  what  he  said 
as  we  can.  There  on  that  old  rostrum  his  great 
heart  and  soul  found  utterance,  and  we,  callow  boys 
though  we  were,  listened  to  such  a  preacher  of  right- 
eousness as  has  been  rarely  given  to  men  to  hear 
anywhere,  and  somehow,  even  as  thoughtless  boys, 
we  knew  it. 


CHAPTER  V. 

WoFFORD  College  and  Its  President  Twenty 
Years  Ago. 

7 


CHAPTER  V. 

WoFFORD  College  and  Its  President  Twenty 
Years  Ago. 

BY  ROBERT  A.  LAW,  ASSOCIATE  PROFESSOR  OF  ENGUSH,  UNIVERSITY 
OF  TEXAS, 

Among  all  the  American  colleges  which  have  been 
recently  described  for  the  Alcalde,  not  one  is  a  de- 
nominational school,  and  not  one  is  located  in  the 
Old  South.  From  institutions  of  each  kind  have 
come  many  useful  men  into  the  service  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Texas.  To  be  a  denominational  college 
in  the  South  does  not  necessarily  imply  the  posses- 
sion of  a  bigoted  and  distorted  vision  of  life  or  low 
ideals  of  scholarship,  with  the  entire  absence  of  aca- 
demic freedom.  It  does  imply  a  small  and  possibly 
undermanned  teaching  staff,  a  correspondingly  lim- 
ited body  of  students,  and  a  poor  equipment,  espe- 
cially for  the  laboratories  of  natural  science.  Yet, 
in  the  judgment  of  some  who  know  the  wealthier 
universities,  this  meager  equipment  and  this  village, 
as  it  were,  among  college  communities  may  well 
hold  their  ground  in  educational  value  if  they  enable 
the  student  to  come  in  close  contact  with  some  large 
personality  among  his  teachers.  And  almost  every 
small  college  seems  to  attract  to  its  faculty  some 
figure  of  the  Mark  Hopkins  or  Thomas  Arnold  type, 
about  whom  all  college  traditions  center  and  to 

(99) 


100  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

whom  all  alumni  devoutly  pay  their  worship.  No 
picture  of  such  an  institution  is  complete  without  the 
accompanying  portrait  of  this  man.  One  small  col- 
lege differs  from  another  chiefly  in  his  individuality. 

Wofford  College,  at  Spartanburg,  S.  C,  long  pos- 
sessed such  a  figure  in  its  President,  Dr.  James  H. 
Carlisle.  Indeed,  so  strongly  did  his  personality  im- 
press itself  on  the  school  that  it  is  said  parents  were 
accustomed  to  speak  of  sending  their  boys  "up  to 
Dr.  Carlisle"  instead  of  giving  the  college  a  local 
habitation  and  a  name.  The  institution  itself  is 
largely  the  outgrowth  of  his  educational  ideas. 

Wofford  is  owned  and  controlled  by  the  two 
Methodist  Conferences  of  South  Carolina,  having 
been  founded  in  1854  from  a  bequest  for  the  pur- 
pose left  by  Benjamin  Wofford,  a  local  preacher  of 
that  denomination.  In  Mr.  Wofford's  home  town 
of  Spartanburg,  lying  just  at  the  foot  of  the  Blue 
Ridge  Mountains,  in  the  extreme  northern  portion 
of  the  State,  the  college  was  located.  About  half 
the  bequest  was  set  aside  for  an  endowment  fund, 
which  was  soon  swept  away  by  investment  in  Con- 
federate bonds.  The  other  half  was  expended  in  the 
purchase  of  a  campus,  perhaps  three  times  the  size 
of  that  owned  by  the  University  of  Texas,  and  the 
erection  of  a  fairly  large  main  building,  flanked  by 
four  or  five  brick  residences  for  the  professors. 
This  main  building  is  still  standing.  It  contained, 
when  I  was  a  student  some  two  decades  since,  an 
auditorium,  or  "chapel,"  sevea  or  eight  classrooms. 


Wofford  College  Twenty  Years  Ago.       loi 

the  college  library  of  eight  thousand  volumes,  lab- 
oratories of  chemistry  and  geology,  halls  of  the  two 
literary  societies,  the  students'  "mess  hall,"  and 
several  students'  sleeping  rooms.  Except  for  the 
professors'  homes  already  mentioned,  eight  or  ten 
cottage  dormitories,  mostly  rented  to  fraternities,  a 
small  building  devoted  to  the  preparatory  depart- 
ment, and,  in  my  senior  year,  a  frame  gymnasium, 
this  main  building  housed  the  entire  college  plant. 

Of  its  one  hundred  and  fifty  students,  a  fair  pro- 
portion were  preparing  to  enter  the  Methodist  min- 
istry, although  Wofford  has  never  possessed  a  the- 
ological department;  many  others  were  sons  of 
Methodist  preachers ;  and  the  rest  were  either  "town 
boys'*  or  else  probably  sons  of  substantial  Methodist 
laymen  living  in  the  rural  sections  of  the  State. 
Five  or  six  girls,  to  be  sure,  were  at  one  time  in 
attendance ;  but  the  college  never  was  really  coedu- 
cational and  barred  its  doors  to  women  after  a  few 
years  of  timid  experimentation  with  the  plan.  This 
was  before  the  days  of  the  broadly  elective  system. 
Students  were  given  an  option  between  the  study  of 
Greek  and  that  of  German  and  French,  the  choice 
to  be  made  at  the  beginning  of  the  freshman  year. 
No  other  road  led  to  the  bachelor's  degree.  Every 
one  was  expected  to  pursue  the  regular  courses  in 
English,  mathematics,  physics,  chemistry,  geology, 
psychology,  moral  science,  and  the  Bible.  If  he 
failed  on  any  one  of  them,  he  had  to  make  up  the  de- 
ficiency by  extra  work  or  forfeit  his  degree.    While 


I02  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

compulsory  attendance  at  church  or  Sunday  school 
was  unheard  of,  every  student  was  required  to  at- 
tend the  daily  chapel  exercises  and  once  every  year 
at  these  exercises  to  make  a  brief  declamation.  Woe 
to  him  who  failed  to  con  his  "speech"  diligently 
for  such  occasions!  He  who  hesitated  was  surely 
lost  amid  tremendous  cheering  from  his  fellows. 

Another  compulsory  regulation  was  that  every 
student  should  become  a  member  of  either  the  Cal- 
houn or  the  Preston  Literary  Society.  Generally 
speaking,  I  believe  this  rule  was  wise  and  proper. 
Each  society  was  run  by  the  students  themselves, 
with  almost  no  suggestion  from  the  faculty,  who 
usually  knew  what  was  going  on,  but  very  rarely 
visited  the  meetings.  The  society  halls  were  com- 
fortable, carpeted  rooms,  devoted  solely  to  that  pur- 
pose, were  well  lighted  and  furnished  with  attrac- 
tive opera  chairs,  and  their  walls  were  ornamented 
with  many  oil  paintings  of  distinguished  alumni  and 
professors.  The  president  of  the  society  sat  on  a 
high  platform  under  a  canopy,  and  he  always  wore 
a  black  gown  of  the  kind  that  South  Carolina  judges 
still  wear  on  the  circuit  bench.  Regular  meetings 
were  held  each  Friday  night,  beginning  at  seven- 
thirty  o'clock  and  lasting  frequently  until  midnight 
or  later.  Roll  was  called  at  the  beginning  and  at 
the  end  of  each  meeting;  and  the  fine  for  unex- 
cused  absence  from  any  roll  call,  if  I  remember 
aright,  was  fifty  cents.  Half  the  society's  member- 
ship of  about  seventy  came  on  duty  to  read  essays, 


Wofford  College  Twenty  Years  Ago.       103 

to  declaim,  or  to  debate  each  Friday  night.  Thus, 
if  one  was  not  on  the  program  at  one  meeting,  he 
was  sure  to  be  at  the  next  one.  These  duties  were 
enforced;  and  order  in  the  meeting  was  preserved 
under  a  rigid  system  of  fines,  which  were  collected 
in  one  way  or  another.  Even  the  most  timid  mem- 
ber soon  found  it  economical  to  perform  his  duty 
regularly,  and  before  the  end  of  his  freshman  year 
practically  every  student  had  gained  some  self-con- 
fidence in  addressing  the  society.  Both  oratory  and 
debate,  as  I  realize  now,  were  faulty  in  technique; 
and  neither  the  graceful  speaker  nor  the  polished 
argument  is  likely  to  result  from  such  training. 
Still  I  believe  that  the  average  Wofford  graduate  of 
that  time  would  prove  a  readier  speaker  and  a  more 
skillful  rough-and-tumble  debater  than  the  average 
male  graduate  of  the  University  of  Texas ;  for  our 
debates  were  largely  spontaneous,  and  the  best  part 
of  them  always  came  after  the  question  was  opened 
to  discussion  by  the  house.  Hence  these  organiza- 
tions furnished  a  training  in  the  clash  of  opinion 
and  a  preparation  for  citizenship  which,  to  my  mind, 
are  invaluable.  That  such  literary  societies  seem 
everywhere  to  be  passing  away  under  the  complex 
machinery  of  modern  college  or  university  admin- 
istration is  a  source  of  profound  regret. 

The  freedom  of  the  individual  student,  once  he 
satisfied  the  requirements  about  courses  of  study, 
daily  chapel  attendance,  and  membership  in  a  liter- 
ary society,  was  greater  than  most  students  of  large 


I04  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

colleges  imagine.  These  literary  societies,  governed 
entirely  by  the  students,  were  the  centers  of  the  so- 
cial life  and,  without  making  any  ado  over  it,  held 
numerous  "democratic  receptions"  in  their  halls 
through  the  year  without  violating  the  well-known 
Methodist  canon  on  the  subject  of  dancing.  We 
had  no  troublesome  deans  nor  deans'  regulations.  If 
we  were  absent  from  class  or  from  chapel  exercise, 
we  made  excuse  to  the  professor  in  charge  or  to  the 
President,  and  our  word  was  accepted.  The  habit- 
ual liar  convicted  himself  in  due  time.  No  one  was 
supposed  to  leave  the  city  without  the  President's 
permission ;  and  few,  I  believe,  ever  did  so.  In  case 
a  student  seriously  neglected  his  studies  or  com- 
menced to  sow  his  "wild  oats,"  he  was  apt  to  be 
called  before  the  President  for  a  personal  interview, 
and  the  incorrigibles  soon  disappeared  from  the 
campus.  Of  course  there  were  infractions  of  dis- 
cipline, like  the  tolling  of  the  college  bell  at  mid- 
night ;  the  painting  of  cows  belonging  to  the  faculty ; 
a  conspiracy  among  students  whereby  a  hen  was 
purchased  and  thrown  into  the  hall  of  a  literary 
society  then  in  session,  but  soon  under  adjournment ; 
even  cases  of  gambling,  drunkenness,  and  the  gross- 
er vices.  But  all  these  offenses  were  handled  quietly 
and  firmly  by  the  President  in  person  and  seldom 
even  by  other  members  of  the  faculty. 

Intercollegiate  athletic  contests  were  conditioned 
along  the  same  simple  lines.  As  a  rule,  we  had  no 
coaches  and  little  faculty  interference  in  our  football 


Wofford  College  Twenty  Years  Ago.       105 

and  baseball  games,  although  no  man  who  was  be- 
hind with  his  work  on  a  single  course  was  allowed  to 
represent  the  college  on  any  team.  We  played  Fur- 
man  (the  Baptist  college  thirty  miles  away),  the 
State  University,  and  certain  smaller  institutions. 
In  football  we  were  generally  successful;  and  our 
baseball  team  passed  through  several  seasons  with- 
out defeat,  taking  long  tours  through  the  State,  un- 
accompanied by  a  coach,  trainer,  or  faculty  member. 
Of  course  we  had  our  own  yells  and  songs  for  such 
games,  but  most  of  them  were  borrowed  from  other 
colleges  and  adopted  with  slight  change.  One  of 
these  songs  I  yet  recall,  though  I  do  not  know  its 
history  nor  whether  it  is  still  sung: 

"In  heaven  above,  where  all  is  love. 

There'll  be  no  faculty  there; 
But  down  below,  where  all  is  woe. 

The  faculty,  they'll  be  there. 
W-o-f-f-o-r-d,  W-o-f-f-o-r-d, 
W-o-f-f-o-r-d. 
Hang  the  faculty!" 

In  spite  of  the  fervid  proclamation  of  these  senti- 
ments, we  were  fond  of  the  faculty  as  individuals. 
Those  who  composed  it  were  only  seven  or  eight 
men,  all  of  whom  the  students  came  to  know  inti- 
mately. None  were  specialists  in  the  exact  sense  of 
the  term ;  and  not  a  single  one  held  the  Ph.D.  degree, 
most  of  them  having  received  their  complete  train- 
ing at  Wofford.  Yet,  knowing  how  to  teach  and 
how  to  treat  individual  students,  they  held  our  re- 


io6  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

spect  and  confidence.  Of  those  living  yet,  I  cannot 
write  definitely  without  becoming  more  personal 
than  would  befit  a  paper  like  this  one.  But  of  the 
President,  already  alluded  to,  one  can  speak  with  less 
reserve.  Before  he  died  hundreds  of  well-informed 
persons  declared  him  to  be  the  greatest  living  citizen 
of  his  State. 

James  Henry  Carlisle  was  a  member  of  the  Wof- 
ford  College  faculty  from  its  foundation,  in  1854, 
to  his  death,  in  1909,  and  was  President  of  the  in- 
stitution for  over  thirty  years.  If  you  once  heard 
Dr.  Carlisle  speak,  you  caught  the  secret  of  his 
greatness.  Almost  six  feet  and  a  half  in  height, 
carrying  himself  always  erect,  he  had  a  frame  well 
proportioned  to  his  stature,  a  full  white  beard,  as 
I  knew  him,  flowing  gray  locks,  and  a  countenance 
of  singular  strength  and  benignity,  suggesting  the 
Hebrew  patriarch.  When  he  spoke  it  was  in  clear, 
resonant  tones  that  fairly  thundered  over  his  audi- 
ence. Though  his  manner  was  always  dignified,  his 
sentences  had  in  them  no  Websterian  periods,  almost 
none  of  the  external  ornamentation  that  is  supposed 
to  be  inborn  with  the  Southern  orator.  They  were 
vigorous,  explicit,  epigrammatic,  of  a  kind  not  eas- 
ily forgotten.  The  content  of  his  message  was  not 
profound,  but  simple,  homely  moral  truth  that  ev- 
ery hearer  could  apply.  The  pithy  diction,  the  apt 
illustrative  incident,  the  seasoning  of  quiet  humor, 
the  new  angle  from  which  the  truth  was  presented 
kept  the  attention  of  old  and  young.    So  it  came  to 


Wojford  College  Twenty  Years  Ago.       107 

be  a  matter  of  remark  that  not  once  or  twice,  but 
whenever  Dr.  Carlisle  was  announced  to  speak  in 
his  home  town,  Spartanburg  had  no  auditorium 
large  enough  to  accommodate  all  who  came  to  hear 
him.  His  exhortations  went  home.  "I  could  not 
go  to  the  devil,"  remarked  an  old  Wofford  man  who 
settled  in  the  pioneer  West,  "because  wherever  I 
went  I  saw  Dr.  Carlisle's  long  forefinger  pointing 
at  me." 

As  a  teacher  it  would  be  unjust  not  to  accord 
him  high  rank.  Yet,  strange  as  it  may  appear,  he 
seemed,  at  least  in  his  later  years,  not  to  have  the 
special  gift  of  imparting  knowledge.  All  the  stu- 
dents he  met  once  or  oftener  every  week,  teaching 
courses  in  astronomy,  in  the  English  Bible,  and  in 
moral  science — that  is,  Butler's  "Analogy  of  Re- 
vealed Religion."  But  in  none  of  these  courses  were 
examinations  held  or  written  work  demanded,  and 
only  the  more  conscientious  students  ever  made  them 
subjects  of  serious  study.  The  old  Doctor  was  not 
teaching  astronomy;  he  was  teaching  men.     "Well, 

Mr.  B ,"  he  would  say  to  the  boy  on  the  front 

bench,  "what  point  struck  you  In  to-day's  lesson?" 
Mr,  B would  make  some  general  or  specific  re- 
mark, which  would  draw  from  the  teacher  a  word 
or  two  of  comment,  and  then  the  question  would  be 
repeated  to  a  second  student.  Thus  from  one-third 
to  one-half  the  class  hour  would  be  consumed.  The 
rest  of  the  period  might  be  devoted  to  conferring 
with  the  class  on  any  matter  that  interested  the  lo- 


io8  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

cal  community;  to  questions  on  the  student's  indi- 
vidual reading,  particularly  when  any  had  been  so 
wise  as  to  read  Thomas  Carlyle's  "Heroes  and  Hero 
Worship"  or  Stalker's  "Life  of  Christ";  and,  espe- 
cially with  the  senior  class,  to  discussion  of  some 
impersonal  phases  of  college  discipline.  The  teach- 
er's consistent  purpose  was  to  learn  more  about  his 
pupils  and  to  arouse  the  sluggish  from  their  intel- 
lectual or  moral  lethargy.  After  all,  however,  I 
doubt  whether  Dr.  Carlisle's  best  teaching  was  done 
either  in  the  classroom  or  on  the  public  platform. 
No  Wofford  graduate  will  forget  many  hours  spent, 
whether  in  college  or  years  after  he  left  it,  in  "visit- 
ing the  Doctor,"  with  or  without  an  invitation. 
Sometimes  he  received  the  caller  on  his  well-shaded 
front  porch,  presenting  a  long  vista  of  tall  pine 
trees.  More  frequently  he  was  to  be  seen  in  his 
study,  which  contained  little  furniture  and  almost  no 
ornaments,  but  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  crowd- 
ed bookshelves  that  fairly  touched  the  ceiling.  The 
conversation  was  apt  to  be  extremely  personal,  and 
the  visitor  usually  did  his  full  share  of  the  talking. 
College  boys  would  tremblingly  confess  to  Dr.  Car- 
lisle sins  that  they  would  conceal  from  fathers  and 
mothers.  Grown  men  out  of  college  many  years 
would  frankly  answer  from  him  questions  that, 
coming  from  any  one  else,  they  would  consider  im- 
pertinent. But  often  the  talk  would  flow  into  a 
larger  channel,  as  the  teacher  possessed  a  keen 
knowledge  of  human  nature,  a  remarkable  memory 


Wofford  College  Twenty  Years  Ago.       109 

for  details  connected  with  men  or  with  books,  and 
at  the  same  time  a  breadth  of  vision  and  an  unfailing 
kindliness  such  as  are  seldom  found  in  men  so  domi- 
nated by  Puritan  traits  as  he  was. 

For  example,  he  had  cause  to  dislike  Northerners 
— "Yankees,"  the  North  Carolina  boy  would  term 
them.  He  grew  up  with  the  generation  that  revered 
Calhoun.  As  a  young  man  he  saw  rise  the  full  tide 
of  sectional  rancor;  and  in  i860,  against  his  will, 
he  was  chosen  by  the  people  of  Spartanburg  County 
to  represent  them  in  the  State  Secession  Convention. 
Over  his  negative  vote  the  Convention  resolved  to 
secede  from  the  Union,  but  his  name  was  signed  in 
bold  hand  to  the  Ordinance  of  Secession.  In  the 
war  which  followed  he  did  not  actively  participate ; 
but  the  college  was  practically  broken  up,  and,  with 
the  people  of  his  community,  he  suffered  not  only 
the  untold  horrors  of  war,  but  the  far  greater  hor- 
rors of  the  Reconstruction  period  just  afterwards. 
He  lived  through  it  all  without  allowing  bitterness 
to  enter  his  soul.  Even  of  General  Grant  he  would 
speak  with  a  tone  of  admiration.  Moreover,  he 
was  an  unfailing  friend  of  the  negroes.  He  once 
introduced  Booker  Washington  to  a  Spartanburg 
audience.  He  frequently  voiced  his  disapproval  of 
"Jim  Crow"  car  laws  on  the  ground  of  their  in- 
justice to  the  negro  race.  His  counsel  on  all  such 
problems  breathed  a  spirit  of  Christian  brotherhood. 

But  with  one  modem  tendency  he  had  little  sym- 
pathy.   For  Dr.  Carlisle  the  magic  of  numbers  in  an 


no  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

educational  institution  had  no  spell.  Learning  that 
his  visitor  attended  an  American  university  enroll- 
ing five  thousand  students,  he  asked:  "Is  there  to 
be  no  limit  to  the  size  of  our  colleges?"  On  this 
point  he  was  perfectly  consistent.  I  well  remember 
hearing  him  announce  to  the  assembled  students  one 
day:  "Some  of  the  newspapers  have  been  very  kind 
in  predicting  an  increase  of  attendance  for  Wofford 
next  year,  possibly  reaching  two  hundred.  Young 
gentlemen,  when  two  hundred  students  enter  the 
front  door  of  Wofford  College,  I  shall  walk  out  of 
the  back  door." 

On  this  principle  of  looking  after  a  small  number 
of  individuals  Wofford  did  her  work.  Out  of  one 
class  of  sixteen  graduates  have  come  a  Methodist 
bishop  now  residing  in  Texas,  the  president  of  the 
wealthiest  college  in  the  South  Atlantic  States,  and 
the  United  States  Senator  who  defeated  Governor 
Blease.  Wofford  has  no  law  department;  but 
among  her  alumni  are  a  United  States  circuit  judge, 
two  justices  of  the  South  Carolina  Supreme  Court, 
and  almost  half  the  circuit  judges  who  have  been 
elected  in  that  State  in  the  last  two  decades.  Dis- 
tinguished records  have  been  made  by  her  alumni 
in  other  lines  of  endeavor.  To-day  the  college  has 
a  larger  faculty,  a  much  larger  student  body,  and 
far  better  equipment  than  when  I  knew  it  best. 
Probably  It  does  better  work,  but  it  will  be  hard  to 
convince  my  generation  of  the  fact. 

Austin,  Tex. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Teacher. 

(Ill) 


CHAPTER  VI. 
Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Teacher, 

BY  D.   D.   WALLACE,   PH.D.,  PROFESSOR  OF  HISTORY  AND  ECONOMICS 
IN  WOFFORD  COLLEGE. 

No  one  can  be  satisfied  with  any  account  of  Dr. 
Carlisle  as  a  teacher;  for  the  writer,  if  successful, 
must  present  perfectly  that  very  real  but  very  elu- 
sive thing  which  we  call  personality.  The  Doctor, 
after  a  long  life  of  constant  devotion  to  a  great 
task,  left  nothing  as  a  distinctive  monument  to  him- 
self. His  literary  output  was  trivial  for  a  man  of 
his  ability.  His  public  addresses  were  not  connected 
with  historic  or  epoch-making  occasions  to  perpet- 
uate their  form.  His  edition,  with  a  slight  sketch,  of 
a  bit  of  the  works  of  Roger  Ascham  and  his  tiny  ele- 
mentary text,  "The  Young  Astronomer,"  misrepre- 
sent rather  than  indicate  anything  of  his  intellectual 
resources;  and  his  contributions  to  the  religious 
press,  particularly  his  "Practical  Applications"  of 
the  lesson  in  the  Methodist  Sunday  School  Maga- 
zine, though  of  great  value  to  the  thousands  of  read- 
ers at  the  time,  form  no  permanent  or  systematic 
body  of  writing.  Indeed,  one  deeply  impressive  les- 
son from  Dr.  Carlisle's  life  is  the  immense  treasure 
of  energy,  labor,  and  character  that  is  required  to 
keep  our  world  growing,  to  keep  the  Church  truly 
militant  and  the  individual  upright  and  active.  Such 
8  (113) 


114  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

work  is  of  inestimable  value,  but  it  leaves  no  more 
distinctive  memorial  tablet  to  itself  than  the  separate 
polyps  of  a  coral  reef.  Dr.  Carlisle  was  a  part  (and 
to  those  whose  lives  he  touched  the  greatest  single 
part)  of  that  vast  unselfish  sacrifice  which  each  gen- 
eration pays  that  there  may  be  another  generation 
better  than  ours,  if  possible. 

Dr.  Carlisle  was,  above  all,  a  teacher.  With  Paul 
he  might  have  said,  "This  one  thing  I  do";  not, 
"These  many  things  I  trifle  with."  I  have  never 
known  a  man  of  an)^hing  like  comparable  ability 
who  so  sedulously  devoted  himself  to  the  one  task 
of  teaching  those  committed  to  his  care.  So  pro- 
foundly true  is  this  that  it  is  safe  to  say  that 
none  knew  his  best  except  those  who  sat  in  his 
classroom.  He  met  public  occasions  with  a  splendid 
fitness.  Few  men  could  pack  so  much  into  a  few 
winged  phrases  and  leave  an  audience  so  thrilled 
with  the  sense  of  great  thoughts  worthily  uttered. 
But  this  was  never  his  best ;  for  his  highest  inspira- 
tion was  not  the  crowded  auditorium,  but  the  group 
of  students  to  whom,  as  a  perpetual  generation  of 
youth,  he  had  devoted  himself  with  a  passion  only 
second  to  that  of  parental  affection. 

I  have  been  impressed  with  the  similarity  between 
Dr.  Carlisle  and  other  great  teachers  of  history, 
both  as  to  character  and  method.  Reverence  and 
time  smooth  off  the  angles  of  a  man  and  sometimes 
represent  him  as  a  softened,  diluted,  pale  shadow  of 
a  real  human  being,  crowned  with  a  nimbus  of  mild 


Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Teacher.  115 

goodness.  Those  thus  idealized  have  not,  in  truth, 
been  men  of  such  sort.  They  have  been  fully  as 
good  as,  perhaps  better  than,  this ;  but  they  have  been 
men  of  force.  It  is  common  to  hear  persons  who 
knew  only  the  outer  boundaries  of  his  character 
speak  of  Dr:  Carlisle  as  though  he  were  hardly  more 
than  a  benign  old  man  of  antique,  seerlike  wisdom, 
loving  the  good  and  full  of  gentleness.  An  artist 
who  seems  to  have  held  this  idea  painted  his  por- 
trait once.  It  remains  as  a  sad  affliction.  The  Doc- 
tor was  a  man,  a  real  man,  with  passion,  power, 
anger,  and  fire.  His  goodness,  though  a  more  im- 
portant, was  not  a  larger  part  of  him  than  his  virile 
force,  that  would  have  pushed  him  to  the  front  in 
any  profession  for  which  a  man  of  his  endowments 
might  be  fitted  by  temperament  and  talent. 

Many  a  student  felt  the  scourge  of  his  indigna- 
tion and  sometimes,  as  with  any  man  of  high  temper 
and  sensitive  honor,  felt  it  unjustly;  but  no  man 
was  more  magnanimous  to  make  amends.  An  il- 
lustration, related  to  me  by  one  who  was  present, 
which  occurred  when  the  Doctor  was  about  fifty- 
five  years  of  age,  will  suffice.  The  Doctor  had  said, 
"Close  your  books,"  and  begun  the  recitation.  Soon 
he  noticed  a  student  on  the  back  bench  with  head 
bent  downward,  looking  into  his  book.  The  Doctor 
detested  any  skulking  meanness,  dishonesty,  per- 
haps, above  all  vices.  He  used  to  say  that  he  always 
had  hopes  of  a  student  until  he  found  he  would 
deliberately  lie,  and  then  he  had  nothing  on  which 


ii6  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

to  build.  With  grief  and  anger,  indignation,  or 
whatever  more  respectable  word  by  which  you  wish 
to  describe  it — the  boys  simply  said  that  "he  was 
mad" — ^he  raked  the  offending  student  with  a  ter- 
rible fire.  When  the  Doctor  was  fully  aroused, 
though  he  perfectly  maintained  his  dignity  of  word, 
tone,  and  bearing,  his  harnessed  emotions  champed 
like  war  horses,  well  simulated  by  his  flashing  eye 
and  audible  breathing.  When  he  at  length  paused, 
the  student  said  calmly:  "Doctor,  I  did  not  hear  you 
say,  'Close  your  books.* "  It  was  as  though  the 
man  at  the  desk  had  been  stunned  by  a  blow.  Ris- 
ing from  his  chair,  with  his  hand  extended,  he 
walked  to  where  the  student  sat  and  grasped  his 
hand,  saying  with  a  feeling  that  made  every  man 
present  suffer  with  him:  "I  beg  your  pardon !  I  beg 
your  pardon!"  The  middle-aged  man  who  related 
this  to  me  seemed  to  consider  it  about  the  greatest 
thing  he  ever  saw  the  Doctor  do.  A  powerful  tem- 
per, if  kept  under  control,  is  like  steam  In  a  boiler: 
it  makes  the  engine  go.  Though  the  Doctor  kept 
his  spirit  under  absolute  control,  except  in  rare  in- 
stances, no  class  could  long  remain  Ignorant  of  the 
fact  that  there  was,  nevertheless,  steam  In  that 
boiler. 

As  we  have  so  few  stories  of  the  Doctor's  boy- 
hood, this  really  worth-while  one  may  be  repeated 
here  as  Illustrating  the  kind  of  stuff  he  was  made 
of.  One  day  when  quite  a  little  fellow  he  missed 
his  lesson  at  school.    The  teacher  wrote  on  his  slate 


Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Teacher.  117 

"Stupid  goose"  and  made  him  show  it  to  all  the 
pupils.  When  he  had  made  the  rounds,  the  teacher, 
who  much  more  deserved  the  insulting  epithet  than 
the  child,  said:  "Aren't  you  ashamed?  Stupid 
goose !"  "No,  I'm  not,"  James  fired  back,  "because 
it's  a  lie."  What  the  next  act  of  the  drama  was,  the 
Doctor  declined  to  say  on  the  only  occasion  on  which 
I  heard  him  asked,  but  that  makes  no  difference. 
What  James  said  is  much  more  important  to  us 
to-day  than  what  the  teacher  did. 

Dr.  Carlisle,  like  other  men,  changed  from  decade 
to  decade.  There  is  only  apparent  inconsistency, 
therefore,  in  the  statements  that  he  never  did  so 
and  so  or  that  he  never  spoke  in  such  and  such  a 
way.  In  middle  life  he  was  austere  as  a  teacher. 
It  is  still  a  tradition  how  he  looked  with  an  expres- 
sion beyond  words  at  a  student  in  geometry  who, 
when  sent  to  the  board  to  find  the  center  of  a  circle, 
approached,  carefully  sighted  the  figure,  and,  plac- 
ing his  finger  at  what  he  judged  to  be  about  the 
proper  place,  answered:  "I  think  it  is  about  there. 
Professor."  He  would  send  a  student  to  the  board 
and  leave  him,  absolutely  without  comment  or  assist- 
ance, to  prove  his  proposition  or  to  bungle  through 
it  until  he  finally  surrendered  in  confusion.  "That 
will  do"  was,  according  to  the  circumstances,  high 
praise  or  mortifying  condemnation. 

It  was  of  this  period  of  his  life  that  the  statement 
is  sometimes  made  that  Dr.  Carlisle  talked  very  lit- 
tle, but  made  the  student  talk.     To  the  end  of  his 


Ii8  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

life  the  Doctor  possessed  the  faculty  of  drawing 
information  without  his  companion's  feeling  that  he 
was  being  pumped ;  but  in  the  last  two  or  three  dec- 
ades of  his  teaching  he  did  talk  a  great  deal,  until 
in  the  final  years  the  text  counted  for  almost  noth- 
ing, and  the  teacher,  according  to  the  purpose  in  his 
mind,  directed  the  discussion  over  such  fields  as 
college  life,  public  events,  religion,  or  practical  mo- 
rality. Though  the  greatest  moral  teacher  whom 
his  pupils  ever  knew,  he  would  not  submit  to  be 
called  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy.  I  cannot  re- 
call whether  he  was  ever  given  that  title  in  the  cata- 
logue; but  if  so,  it  was  smuggled  in  without  his 
consent.  It  sounded  too  unctuous,  too  perfunctory, 
too  pretentious,  too  hollow.  The  Doctor  had  a  keen 
sense  of  humor.  I  remember  the  twinkle  in  his  eye 
and  his  look  of  satisfaction  at  his  not  being  called 
by  such  a  title,  I  imagine,  with  which  he  commented 
on  a  professor  of  moral  philosophy  in  Pennsylvania 
having  burned  down  the  college  because  he  had  been 
discharged  from  his  position. 

Doubtless  each  generation  of  students  will  con- 
tinue to  think  that  Dr.  Carlisle  was  at  his  best  in 
their  own  time;  but,  nevertheless,  I  think  I  have 
much  to  support  me  In  saying  that  the  fullest,  ma- 
turest,  most  Inspiring  teaching  of  his  life  must  have 
been  In  the  early  nineties.  Pie  was  then  still  In  his 
undiminished  strength  of  body,  elasticity  of  mind, 
and  genial  warmth  of  spirit.  The  austerity  of  mid- 
dle life  had  softened  into  a  something  which  in- 


Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Teacher.  119 

spired  awe  without  fear.  Every  movement  was  as 
prompt  and  decided  as  a  military  commander's,  his 
step  as  elastic,  his  eye  and  smile  as  bright,  and  his 
voice  as  ringing  as  those  of  a  man  in  his  prime. 
From  what  men  tell  me  who  knew  him  earlier,  there 
must  have  been  even  more  of  power,  though  perhaps 
less  of  benignity,  in  earlier  decades. 

Dr.  Carlisle's  power  was,  above  all,  the  power  of 
personality.  Teachers  there  have  been  who  by  their 
sheer  intellectuality  have  drawn  the  select  minds  of 
their  age  and  directed  them  by  the  force  of  their 
thought.  The  Doctor's  power  was  not  that.  It  was 
the  direct  influence  of  soul  on  soul  through  the 
potency  of  the  larger,  richer,  nobler  soul  to  inspire 
the  best  in  the  other.  He  saw,  and  made  his  pupils 
see,  the  glory  in  our  common  life,  the  awfulness  of 
sin,  the  sacredness  of  human  relations.  His  spirit- 
ual power  was  wonderful.  Nowhere  have  I  met  its 
equal.  Many  a  day  as  I  sat  in  my  alphabetical  po- 
sition in  the  back  of  his  classroom,  and  as  he  drew 
nearer  and  nearer  to  the  secret  chambers  of  the  soul 
and  made  more  and  more  intense  the  consciousness 
of  the  divine  in  and  near  one's  self,  the  physical 
view  of  classmates  and  classroom  has  swum  into 
oblivion  while  a  luminous  path  united  his  face  and 
mine. 

Though  the  Doctor  was  a  master  of  language,  as 
is  so  well  illustrated  by  Dr.  Snyder's  article  in  this 
volume,  he  never,  to  my  knowledge,  indulged  In 
nicely  turned  phrases  of  catchy  sentences  for  the 


120  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

sake  of  sound  or  fine  writing.  And  yet  he  admired 
good  writing  and  could  quote  it  with  effect,  as,  for 
example,  Webster's  period  about  the  morning  drum- 
beat daily  encircling  the  earth  with  one  continuous 
and  unbroken  strain  of  the  martial  airs  of  England. 
If,  as  some  have  suggested,  he  worked  out  his  splen- 
did bursts  of  expression  into  their  perfect  form  by 
careful  conning  and  practice,  he  had  the  finest  art 
that  I  have  known  of  suiting  the  degree  of  passion, 
the  turn  of  phrase,  and  the  emphasis  of  voice  to  the 
moment  of  delivery.  I  have  heard  him  relate  as  an 
object  lesson,  after  quoting  the  thrilling  passage 
from  Webster's  Bunker  Hill  oration  referred  to 
above,  Webster's  answer  to  a  friend  who  congratu- 
lated him  upon  it,  particularly  as  it  seemed  to  be  so 
thoroughly  spontaneous  and  unpremeditated.  "No," 
replied  Webster,  "that  thought  occurred  to  me  years 
ago  as  I  was  standing  upon  the  ramparts  of  Quebec. 
I  worked  it  over  until  I  had  it  in  a  form  to  satisfy 
me.  Then  I  laid  it  aside  for  use  at  the  proper  time. 
The  occasion  came  to-day,  and  I  used  it." 

A  man  of  clear  mind  and  poetic  gift  who  has 
frequently  to  say  the  same  sort  of  thing  is  likely  to 
settle  into  a  certain  fitting  form  of  expression  which 
gradually  assumes  an  almost  faultless  adaptation  to 
its  purpose.  As  the  rugged  Norse  Saga,  repeated  by 
minstrel  from  generation  to  generation,  bringing 
out  the  essential  and  dropping  the  Incidental,  finally 
comes  to  us  in  a  form  beyond  criticism,  so  I  think 
Dr.  Carlisle's  wonderful  forcefulness  and  effective- 


Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Teacher.  121 

ness  of  speech  was  the  natural  outcome  of  a  mind 
long  carefully  pondering  on  certain  topics  and  work- 
ing with  extraordinary  clearness  under  the  impulse 
of  burning  emotion. 

The  Doctor  drove  truth  home  as  with  a  sledge. 
He  had,  to  a  remarkable  degree,  delicacy  of  feeling, 
sensitiveness,  and  all  those  finer  traits  of  mind  and 
heart ;  but  even  when  touching  the  hearts  and  minds 
of  his  boys  at  these  points  the  sense  of  power, 
though  ever  so  gentle,  was  the  principal  thing.  I 
cannot  imagine  Dr.  Carlisle  painfully  nursing  in  the 
middle  voice  a  set  of  delicate,  finely  wrought,  frag- 
ile, self-conscious  little  personal  virtues.  He  was 
always  manly  and  strong  and  so  showed  men  that  to 
be  pure  and  gentle  and  true  was  strong  and  manly. 

Perhaps  it  was  this  splendid  vigor  of  the  Doc- 
tor's religious  life,  rather  than  intellectual  timidity, 
that  kept  him  from  entering  into  questions  of  doubt. 
His  attitude  was  like  that  of  Anselm,  that  father  of 
medieval  faith  and  learning,  who  declared  that  his 
desire  was  not  to  believe  what  he  could  understand, 
but,  as  far  as  possible,  to  understand  that  which  he 
believed.  It  is  the  attitude  always  of  the  transcen- 
dental spirit.  One  of  the  Doctor's  favorite  quota- 
tions was:  "It  is  as  satisfactory  to  a  healthy  mind 
to  know  that  there  is  an  explanation  as  to  know 
what  the  explanation  is."  It  sounds  like  the  Doc- 
tor's favorite,  Augustine.  Whether  he  got  it  from 
him,  I  am  too  ignorant  of  Augustine  to  say ;  but  he 
got  many  of  his  most  striking  expressions  there,  as 


122  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

I  found  when,  to  his  dehght,  I  read  the  old  saint's 
"Confessions."  "The  Gospel  for  an  Age  of  Doubt" 
was  not  the  Doctor's  method  of  helping  men  in  their 
difficulties,  but  rather  the  gospel  vigorously  believed 
and  faithfully  lived. 

The  personal  touch  was  the  Doctor's  whole  proc- 
ess of  education.  He  knew  every  student  as  a  fa- 
ther— much  better  than  most  fathers — and  his  won- 
derful memory  let  few  of  them  escape  in  after  years. 
How  he  could  remember !  I  could  never  get  him  to 
speak  of  any  method  that  he  had  further  than  to 
quote  an  old  teacher  who  said  to  him:  "Your  memo- 
ry is  like  a  dog.  Trust  it,  and  it  won't  bite  you." 
The  precision  and  swiftness  of  his  mental  processes 
in  the  realms  of  his  own  talents  was  the  despair  of  an 
ordinary  mortal;  but  in  some  lines,  such  as  those 
requiring  mechanical  ingenuity,  he  was  apparently  as 
helpless  as  a  child.  In  fact,  in  many  things  that  en- 
gage the  interest  of  men — politics,  social  problems, 
government,  and  business — ^he  seemed  to  practice  a 
modesty  and  distrust  of  himself  which  prevented 
such  output  from  the  great  faculties  of  which  he 
was  possessed  as  the  world  expects  of  one  so  gifted. 
The  explanation,  I  believe,  lay  partly  in  an  indispo- 
sition to  systematic  intellectual  labor  and  partly  in 
his  absorption  in  moral  and  religious  interests. 

The  Doctor  carried  the  method  of  the  personal 
touch  not  only  into  the  students'  relations  with  him, 
but  into  their  relations  with  each  other.  It  was  not 
unusual  for  one  or  two  students  to  be  detained  after 


Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Teacher.  123 

class  to  receive  some  such  message  as  this:  "Your 
friend  So-and-So  is  falling  off  in  his  work  [or 
conduct].  I  am  becoming  uneasy  about  him.  You 
have  influence  with  him.  Get  around  him  and  bring 
him  up." 

The  Doctor's  chief  heroes  were  Paul,  Wesley, 
Washington,  Lee,  and  all  mothers.  No  man  could 
equal  the  power  with  which  he  presented  the  appeal 
of  mother  to  what  is  most  generous  in  a  young  man's 
soul.  He  idealized  womanhood  so  far  that  he  ap- 
peared to  know  of  no  wickedness  or  weakness  to 
the  discredit  of  women. 

I  recall  an  incident  that  illustrated  the  Doctor's 
habit  of  giving  any  subject  most  unexpectedly  and 
effectively  a  moral  and  religious  turn.  One  clear 
winter  night  he  was  pointing  out  to  the  senior  class 
various  stars  and  constellations  with  the  sweep  of 
imagination  that  raised  one  to  realize  something  of 
the  grandeur  of  creation.  "And  yet,  young  men," 
he  said,  turning  his  eyes  from  the  stars  to  us,  "not 
all  of  them  together  are  worth  one  human  soul." 
Without  another  word  he  walked  Into  the  house,  and 
the  hour  was  over.  What  was  in  another's  mouth 
a  stale,  flat,  canting  commonplace  was  in  his  a  burn- 
ing truth.  To  me  the  dignity  and  worth  of  the  hu- 
man soul  can  never  be  cheap  after  that. 

Another  remark  that  impressed  me  greatly  was 
made  in  class  one  day  with  a  peculiar,  quiet  inten- 
sity. "I  do  not  see,"  he  said,  "how  the  existence  of 
the  soul  in  heaven  can  be  other  than  a  progressive 


124  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

development  of  every  faculty  and  virtue  toward,  but 
attaining,  the  perfection  of  the  Creator." 

The  Doctor's  splendid,  generous  personality  was 
finely  exhibited  in  his  relations  with  his  faculty. 
Among  the  most  delightful  recollections  of  my  life 
is  the  half  hour's  waiting  for  the  whole  body  to 
assemble  or  for  the  taking  up  of  business.  The 
Doctor  was  one  of  the  most  gifted  of  monologists; 
and  on  such  occasions,  with  his  keen  humor,  inci- 
sive observation,  and  vivid  narrative,  he  would  run 
over  almost  everything  from  ante-bellum  history  to 
amusing  personal  anecdote.  The  great  problems 
that  lie  at  the  basis  of  the  teacher's  work  had  his 
attention.  I  recall  the  first  faculty  meeting  of  the 
last  year  of  his  active  presidency.  After  referring, 
with  a  note  more  suggestive  of  discouragement  than 
I  had  ever  heard  from  him,  to  some  of  the  uglier 
tendencies  of  the  times,  he  said:  "This  country  will 
never  go  down  in  ruin  for  lack  of  educated,  skilled 
men.  It  may  go  down  for  lack  of  moral  character. 
[Pause.]  And  yet  our  Lord  knew  infinitely  more 
of  the  good  and  evil  in  the  world  than  we.  He 
knew  all  things,  and  he  was  no  pessimist.'* 

The  professors  sometimes  felt  his  reproof,  though 
given  with  a  skill  that  almost  always  made  reply 
impossible.  A  professor  on  one  occasion  was  des- 
canting with  rather  exaggerated  impatience  on  cer- 
tain student  shortcomings.  "I  suppose,"  replied  the 
President  somewhat  sadly,  "we  shall  never  have  a 
perfect  body  of  students  until  we  have  a  perfect 


Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Teacher.  125 

faculty."  The  reproof  was  sometimes  sharper  and 
edged  with  a  touch  of  sarcasm,  as  on  the  following 
occasion:  The  Doctor  had  evidently  determined  to 
stretch  mercy  as  far  as  the  law  allowed  for  a  rather 
broken-down  sort  of  nondescript  whose  services 
were  very  much  needed  on  the  ball  team.  Falling 
into  an  expression  that  was  often  on  his  lips,  he 
said:  "Taking  account  of  all  the  equities  of  the 
case,  what  can  we  do  with  this  young  man?"  "But, 
Doctor,"  said  a  young  professor,  "this  does  not  seem 
to  be  a  case  where  equity  applies.  Equity  is  de- 
signed to  relieve  the  manifest  injustice  that  arises 
from  the  universality  of  law,  and  there  are  no  such 
circumstances  in  this  case.  The  law  simply  cuts  this 
man  off."  The  President  was  surprised.  He  looked 
fixedly  at  the  professor  and  then  repeated  his  ques- 
tion in  about  these  words  and  with  a  good  spice  of 
feeling  in  his  tone:  "In  the  light  of  this  learned  and 
enlightened  definition  of  equity,  what  do  you  think 
best  to  do  with  this  case?" 

It  was  rare  that  the  raps  were  tinged  with  so 
strong  a  color  of  ill  humor,  but  it  was  not  rare  for 
them  to  be  quite  sharp.  It  will  be  recalled  that 
General  Lee  had  a  similar  habit  of  setting  down 
young  officers  on  what  he  deemed  proper  occasion — 
all  of  which  doubtless  will  be  very  painful  to  those 
good  people  who  think  that  great  men  are  made  out 
of  mollycoddles. 

The  Doctor's  method  of  discipline  was  the  appli- 
cation of  his  one  method  as  a  teacher,  the  personal 


126  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

touch;  and  this  might  be  understood  either  in  the 
sense  of  touching  up  the  offender  or  of  deahng  with 
his  case  as  that  of  a  concrete  individual.  First  came 
the  personal  appeal  in  the  privacy  of  the  President's 
study — ^those  high  bookshelves  reaching  to  the  un- 
usually high  ceiling;  the  tall,  prompt  man,  impres- 
sive with  all  the  external  marks  of  greatness;  the 
treatment  of  the  case  as  though  it  were  the  one  mat- 
ter worth  while  in  the  world  just  then.  If  this  ap- 
peal failed,  it  was  a  hard  case.  If  necessary,  report 
to  the  faculty  followed ;  and  when  all  had  failed  to 
bring  the  prodigal  to  himself,  his  father  was  re- 
quested to  withdraw  him.  In  the  later  decades  at 
least  "expulsion"  was  a  stigma  never  affixed  to  a 
young  man.  The  Doctor's  effort  was  to  bring  the 
offender  to  see  his  wrong,  to  repent  of  it,  and  to 
make  a  solemn  and  sincere  promise  of  amendment. 
And,  whatever  the  theoretical  deficiencies  of  such  a 
system  or  its  limitations  in  larger  institutions,  it 
made  Wofford  Campus  one  hard  to  equal  in  good 
order,  and  a  good  order  absolutely  independent  of 
any  compulsion  or  repression.  A  frequent  expres- 
sion of  the  Doctor's  was:  "He  will  find  his  level." 
Similar  was  that  other:  "The  world  is  very  ready 
to  accept  you  at  the  valuation  which  you  put  upon 
yourself." 

Two  others  of  his  characteristics  were  his  abhor- 
rence of  mob  spirit  and  his  resentment  of  imperti- 
nence. One  illustration  of  the  latter  arose  out  of 
a  senior's  presuming,  at  a  public  entertainment,  to 


Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Teacher.  127 

sit  in  the  body  of  the  audience  with  the  young  lady 
whom  he  had  brought,  instead  of,  after  seating  her, 
taking  his  place,  according  to  law,  with  his  literary 
society.  The  Doctor  requested  from  the  platform 
that  all  students  take  their  positions  with  their  lit- 
erary societies.     Young  Mr.  A— did  not  move. 

The  request  was  repeated,  somewhat  more  pointedly. 

Still  Mr.  A preferred  to  remain  where  he  was. 

Few  men  in  authority  relish  defiance,  least  of  all  a 

high-spirited  Scotch-Irishman.    "Will  Mr.  A ,'* 

said  the  Doctor  with  emphasis,  "please  take  his  seat 
with  his  literary  society?"  Mr.  A did.  The  in- 
fraction was  perhaps  trivial,  and  its  discipline  was 
unpleasant ;  but  the  rule  was  simple  and  reasonable, 
and  discipline  rests  on  certainty.    The  next  morning 

Mr.  A ,  who  also  had  Irish  in  him,  called  upon 

the  Doctor  to  ask  an  apology.    "What !    Mr.  A , 

after  Wofford  College  has  done  what  it  has  for 
you,  do  you  presume  to  demand  of  me  an  apology? 

Good  morning,  Mr.  A !    Good  morning !" 

Judge  Charles  A.  Woods  says:  "Dr.  Carlisle 
wrote  no  great  book ;  he  made  no  discovery ;  he  took 
little  part  in  the  public  councils  of  the  people ;  he  was 
not  foremost  in  any  department  of  learning;  as  a 
college  executive  he  was  not  without  faults.  .  .  . 
It  seems  to  me  that  his  power  came  from  three  main 
sources:  First,  his  character,  his  attaining  to  a  sim- 
ple, unselfish  life  without  guile,  his  striving  humbly 
to  lead  his  people  to  the  highest  things;  .  .  . 
secondly,     .     .     .     the  most  profound  optimism; 


128  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

.  .  .  and  the  third  element  of  his  power  was 
eloquence." 

Surprise  has  often  been  expressed  that,  though 
the  Doctor  spoke  often  of  the  blessing  of  a  magnum 
opus,  he  himself  seemed  to  have  no  such  definite 
task  to  draw  out  his  powers.  But  he  did  have  his 
magnum  opus.  It  was  to  give  himself  wholly  to 
making  young  men  wiser  and  better.  Even  in  the 
last  hours  it  filled  his  mind,  no  longer  clearly  con- 
scious of  its  surroundings.  In  the  dawn  of  one  of 
the  last  days  he  asked  one  at  his  bedside:  "What 
time  is  it?"  "Six  o'clock."  Thinking  it  was  the 
close  instead  of  the  beginning  of  the  day,  he  re- 
plied: "The  boys  will  have  a  long  evening  to  study/* 
He  thought,  too,  that  he  had  before  him  a  new 
freshman  class  at  the  opening  of  college;  and  he 
spoke  to  them,  except  for  a  word  here  and  there, 
as  clearly  and  calmly  as  on  that  never-to-be-for- 
gotten meeting  when  each  incoming  class  received 
his  words  of  counsel  and  inspiration. 

Dr.  Snyder  relates  that  when  he  was  coming  to 
Wofford  as  a  young  professor  Dr.  Charles  Forster 
Smith  said  of  Dr.  Carlisle:  "You  will  find  him  the 
most  of  a  New  Testament  man  of  any  you  have 
ever  known."  Such  In  very  truth  he  was.  Dr. 
Carlisle  was  great,  not  chiefly  by  nature  and  endow- 
ment, but  by  the  depth  and  thoroughness  of  his 
consecration.  We  console  ourselves  that  we  cannot 
be  as  good  men  as  he  was  because  we  are  so  much 
smaller.     The  fact  is  otherwise:  so  few  men  are 


Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  Teacher.  129 

willing  to  pay  what  he  gladly  paid  to  be  what  he 
was  in  character. 

At  the  great  community  memorial  service  held  in 
Converse  College  Auditorium  Mr.  E.  L.  Archer  said: 
"By  a  man  like  Dr.  Carlisle  men  may  get  some  idea 
of  what  God  is  like."  As  bold  as  is  the  thought,  it 
is  not  sacrilegious.  As  God  gave  us  the  supreme 
revelation  of  himself  in  Christ,  so  he  speaks  through 
a  mobile  character  with  a  meaning  that  nothing  else 
can  express.  A  man  like  Dr.  James  H.  Carlisle  in- 
spires an  unquestionable  faith  in  the  essential  nobil- 
ity of  human  nature  and  the  benevolence  of  God  and 
his  purposes. 

WoFFORD  College,  January  6,  1916. 

9 


CHAPTER  VII. 
Tributes  to  Dr.  Carlisle. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
Tributes  to  Dr.  Carlisle. 

I. 

Dr.  Carlisle  as  Seen  by  the  Students. 

BY  A.  W.  AYERS. 

Dr.  Carlisle  was  a  friend  to  every  one.  His 
words  of  advice  were  a  comfort  to  the  forgotten 
and  neglected.  Oftentimes,  when  shadows  of  gloom 
were  hanging  low  and  I  seemed  to  be  alone,  I  pic- 
tured to  myself  an  aged,  hoary-headed  person  in  a 
lecture  room  throwing  out  kindest  words  of  sympa- 
thy and  advice  which  none  other  than  a  faithful, 
true  friend  could  have  given,  and  thus  I  was  forced 
to  admit  that  I  had  one  friend,  anyway. 


BY  J.   K.  DAVIS. 

To  me  Dr.  Carlisle  was  a  great,  quiet,  unassum- 
ing man.  In  his  presence,  in  the  classroom,  at  his 
home,  and  on  the  street  one  could  always  feel  that 
he  was  in  the  presence  of  a  man  of  men.  "See  to 
it  that  your  roommate  has  a  good  roommate." 
These  words  were  characteristic  of  him.  They  have 
been  the  most  potent  human  influence  in  my  life. 
From  these  words,  spoken  in  his  earnest  and  noble 
and  gentle  and  beauteous  spirit,  one  could  not  leave 
the  classroom  the  same  person  as  when  he  entered. 

(133) 


134  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

To  know  him  and  partake  of  his  spirit,  to  enter  into 
his  personal  and  higher  Hfe,  and  to  feel  his  interests, 
his  sympathy,  and  his  love,  was  in  itself  an  educa- 
tion. Indeed,  if  Dr.  Carlisle  looked  at  you  once, 
your  only  thought  was:  "Let  my  manhood  be  un- 
sullied, my  looks  be  innocent,  my  thoughts  be  pure, 
my  words  be  kind,  my  actions  be  gentle,  and  my 
life,  be  Christlike."  And  withal  my  greatest  im- 
pression of  Dr.  Carlisle  was  his  gentle  and  Christ- 
like spirit,  always  calm  and  lovable,  which  made 
one  feel  that  there  was  a  man,  a  living,  breathing, 
walking  representative  of  Christ  on  earth.  Help 
me  to  be  like  him ! 


BY  T.  E.   CRANE. 

The  one  thing  in  Dr.  Carlisle's  life  that  impressed 
me  most  was  his  power  of  earnestness,  which  caused 
men  to  reverence  him.  There  was  always  perfect 
behavior  in  his  classroom;  and  no  boy,  however 
sinful,  ever  left  the  room  without  some  noble 
thought  to  take  with  him.  I  have  never  left  his 
presence  at  any  time  without  having  been  deeply 
impressed  with  the  great,  earnest  life  of  the  man. 


BY  HERBERT  HUCKS. 

No,  we  shall  not  see  him  again  in  life.  We  now 
enter  his  classroom  in  sadness  and  look  upon  his 
dear  old  chair,  knowing  that  never  again  will  he  sit 
there  and  talk  to  us  as  in  days  gone  by.     But  his 


Tributes  to  Dr.  Carlisle.  135 

influence  can  never  die.  Any  college  should  thank 
Heaven  for  the  priceless  gift  of  such  a  life.  What 
would  Wofford,  which  stands  for  all  that  is  high 
and  noble,  have  been  without  Dr.  Carlisle?  None 
dare  even  guess.  And  God  forbid  that  the  day  may 
ever  dawn  when  the  precious  influence  of  his  noble, 
peerless  life  shall  depart  from  her  highest  ambitions 
and  ideals !  

BY  C.  B,  DAWSEY. 

Probably  the  deepest  impression  left  on  my  mind 
from  my  knowledge  of  Dr.  Carlisle  was  his  lasting 
interest  in  the  individual.  Many  times  I  have  been 
to  his  study,  but  never  without  his  asking  me  of 
my  parents  and  giving  me  some  interesting  tract  to 
send  to  my  mother.  Before  allowing  me  to  leave, 
he  would  always  want  to  know  something  about  my 
college  work  and  what  profession  I  expected  to 
follow  as  a  life  work.  Feeling  his  personal  interest 
in  this  way,  I  could  not  help  but  have  my  heart 
strongly  moved  for  the  best  and  greatest  in  life. 

BY  M.  M,  BROOKS. 

Of  the  many  noble  characteristics  of  Dr.  Carlisle, 
the  one  that  impressed  me  most  was  his  intense  in- 
terest in  the  spiritual  welfare  of  young  men.  As  he 
came  into  contact  with  them  from  time  to  time  in 
his  lecture  room  he  would  almost  invariably  dismiss 
the  class  with  the  emphatic  words:  "Don't  forget 
the  inner  man." 


136  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

BY  F.  MURATA, 

On  that  cold,  dreary,  and  rainy  October  morning 
our  hearts  were  peculiarly  distressed  by  the  sad 
news  of  the  death  of  our  Dr.  Carlisle.  A  grievous 
thought,  "We  shall  see  him  no  more  on  this  earth,'* 
took  possession  of  our  hearts.  We  felt  as  if  the 
corner  stone  of  our  dear  old  institution  had  been 
taken  away.  Words  are  indeed  inadequate  to  ex- 
press our  sorrow.  But,  after  all,  he  is  not  dead. 
We  know  that  no  death  can  overcome  the  pure, 
noble,  saintly,  and  sacrificial  life  of  this  "grand  old 
man.**  That  stately  and  majestic  stature  is  still 
walking  with  us  on  our  campus.  His  warning  voice, 
"Young  men,  don't  drift,"  will  linger  in  our  ears  for 
years  to  come.  His  keen  and  brilliant  eyes  are  still 
flashing  in  our  memory.  No,  we  cannot  imagine 
that  he  is  gone.  We  are  glad  to  know  that  his  spirit 
is  still  with  us  and  will  be  with  us,  teaching  us  to 
live  that  best  and  noblest  life. 


BY  HERBERT  LANGFORD. 

"He  that  humbleth  himself  shall  be  exalted'*  ex- 
plains why  Dr.  Carlisle  was  a  great  man.  With  his 
rare  intellect  he  could  have  become  a  money  mag- 
nate, a  great  politician,  or  a  president  of  some  great 
university.  But  he  preferred  to  serve  his  Maker  at 
Wofford.  He  could  have  acquired  riches,  but  he 
loved  too  well  the  boys  at  Wofford.  He  gave  up  all 
for  us.    He  was  our  Dr.  Carlisle,  and  we  loved  him. 


Tributes  to  Dr.  Carlisle.  137 

BY  R.  L.   MERIWETHER. 

To  many  now  in  college  Dr.  Carlisle  was  known 
personally  only  from  those  few  short  hours  when  he 
met  each  class.  And  even  then,  instead  of  a  lecture 
on  the  deeper  and  graver  subjects,  there  was  a  talk 
on  what  might  be  called  the  little  things  of  life,  the 
ways  and  manners  and  minor  duties  known  to  all, 
but  neglected  by  so  many.  To  those  of  less  influence 
and  regarded  with  little  of  the  general  reverence 
which  Dr.  Carlisle  commanded,  there  is  often  given 
the  privilege  of  ignoring  many  of  these  smaller 
duties  without  being  censured ;  but  all  knew  that  he 
so  earnestly  called  attention  to  these  things  because 
of  the  strictness  in  his  observance  of  them.  So, 
while  others  might  have  given  advice  like  this  and 
been  heard  with  indifference,  when  it  came  from 
Dr.  Carlisle  it  could  not  but  make  an  impression. 
But  stronger  than  this  impression,  and  what  will  be 
as  lasting  in  the  minds  of  the  hearers  as  the  broad 
principles  on  which  these  little  things  were  based, 
was  the  realization  of  the  true  greatness  of  him  who 
gave  them,  whom  to  see  was  a  privilege  and  to  hear 
a  benediction.  

BY   H.  GRADY   HARDIN. 

Once  while  talking  to  the  junior  class  Dr.  Car- 
lisle said:  "You  cannot  all  be  eloquent,  young  gen- 
tlemen, but  you  can  every  one  live  a  pure,  clean, 
godly  life  and  in  that  way  preach  to  the  world  a 
sermon  greater  than  any  ever  preached  by  human 


138  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

lips."  Ah!  how  he  proved  this  to  the  world!  No 
greater  sermon  has  ever  been  preached  than  that 
one  preached  by  the  pure,  clean,  godly  life  of  Dr. 
Carlisle.  Scattered  throughout  the  land  are  old 
Wofford  men  who  were  made  to  live  better  lives  by 
the  silent  influence  of  this  great  man.  Indeed,  his 
life  was  great ;  and  it  was  made  so,  not  by  any  elo- 
quent orations  delivered  nor  by  any  great  books 
written,  but  by  the  silent  living  of  what  he  knew  to 
be  the  right.  The  most  impressive  thing  about  his 
funeral  was  its  simplicity.  No  great  speech-making 
and  eulogizing  was  needed,  for  his  life  spoke  for 
itself.  Surely  the  sermon  preached  by  the  life  of 
Dr.  Carlisle  can  never  be  forgotten,  and  its  influence 
can  never  reach  an  end. 


BY  F.  WARREN  DIBBLE. 


In  Dr.  Carlisle's  presence  one  felt  as  if  he  were 
standing  before  some  grand  existence — ^the  feeling 
was  indescribable,  hence  I  say  existence.  Yet  this 
grandness  had  some  peculiar  magnetism  which 
awakened  our  love.  To  be  in  his  presence  was  to 
love  him,  and  we  realized  that  In  loving  him  we 
loved  the  man  who  lived  most  nearly  the  Christ  life. 
He  is  not  dead,  but  sleepeth  and  liveth  an  influence 
in  the  lives  of  those  who  had  the  high  privilege  of 
associating  with  him,  and  through  these  many  are 
directed  to  the  noblest  things  in  life. 


Tributes  to  Dr.  Carlisle.  139 

BY  R.  DE  WITT  GUILDS. 

One  of  the  great  moral  lessons  taught  by  Dr. 
Carlisle  was  that  of  punctuality.  He  taught  this  in 
and  out  of  the  classroom,  not  by  words  only,  but  by 
setting  the  example  himself. 


BY   MATTHEW  S.  LIVELY. 


"Our  Dr.  Carlisle"  has  left  us,  and  Wofford  will 
never  be  the  same  again.  His  going  away  left  a 
vacancy  on  the  campus  which  can  never  be  filled. 
The  college  duties  will  apparently  go  on  as  they 
always  have ;  but  something  will  be  lacking,  however 
promptly  or  conscientiously  they  are  performed. 
Even  the  janitor  cannot  go  about  his  work  as  he 
did  before.  The  old  bell  in  the  tower  will  never 
peal  forth  with  the  same  tone  any  more.  The  very 
seats  before  which  Dr.  Carlisle  sat  so  many  times 
and  gave  us  those  heart-to-heart  talks  brimming  over 
with  love  and  sympathy  and  kindness  cannot  appear 
as  they  once  did.  The  books  in  the  library  and  the 
magazines  on  the  table  will  be  found  in  their  accus- 
tomed places;  but  for  the  last  time  those  loving, 
tender,  trembling  hands  have  turned  their  pages  and 
marked  the  important  paragraphs.  And  most  of 
all  will  his  familiar  face  be  missed  at  chapel  and 
those  striking  remarks  appropriately  made.  Tread 
softly,  fellow  students,  for  every  inch  of  Wofford's 
campus  is  now  hallowed  ground.  Every  word 
which  passed  between  his  lips  was  filled  with  a 


140  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

dynamic  force.  They  were  all  good  and  great  and 
noble.  One  did  not  leave  his  classroom  or  his  pres- 
ence at  any  time  remembering  some  saying  which 
he  could  never  forget.  No,  it  was  not  that.  But 
he  somehow  felt  that  he  had  just  listened  to  a  noble, 
divinely  inspired  man.  It  was  that  earnest  face,  that 
piercing  eye,  which  would  always  stay  with  him — 
an  "undefinable  something."  Dr.  Carlisle  gone? 
In  body,  yes;  in  spirit,  never.  Thanks  to  his  Mak- 
er and  ours,  that  can  never  be  taken  from  us.  It 
remains  with  us  to  guard  us  and  to  guide  us  and  to 
show  us  the  narrow  way. 


BY  R.  LEON  KEATON. 

The  students  of  Wofford  deeply  feel  the  loss  of 
our  fatherly — yes,  motherly — Dr.  Carlisle.  He  was 
motherly  because  his  tender  heart  was  always  going 
out  to  those  whom  he  touched.  We  loved  him  be- 
cause he  was  simple,  because  he  was  true,  because 
he  was  faithful,  because  he  was  modest,  and  because 
he  was  good.  Those  who  sat  in  his  classroom  had 
the  blessed  privilege  of  partaking  of  the  very  nature 
of  Christ.  Dr.  Carlisle  was  so  full  of  Christ  that 
when  with  him  each  knew  that  he  was  with  a  godly 
man.  His  life  was  made  up  of  little  things.  After 
they  leave  this  world  some  men  live  in  fine  build- 
ings, some  in  history,  some  in  libraries,  many  in 
other  things ;  but  Dr.  James  H.  Carlisle  lives  in  the 
hearts  of  men,  near  their  souls,  ever  urging  them  on 


Tributes  to  Dr.  Carlisle.  141 

in  the  rational  fight  for  the  highest,  the  noblest,  and 
the  manliest  life — for  God. 


BY  RALPH  L,  NEWTON. 

In  my  opinion,  there  are  two  traits  in  Dr.  Car- 
lisle's character  which  stand  out  more  prominently 
than  any  others.  In  the  first  place,  he  never  failed 
to  point  out  to  any  one  the  necessity  of  living  a 
Qiristian  life.  I  well  remember  the  first  conversa- 
tion which  I  had  with  him.  We  did  not  talk  five 
minutes ;  but,  nevertheless,  he  found  opportunity  to 
inquire  concerning  my  spiritual  condition.  What 
he  could  do  for  his  Master  was  always  uppermost 
in  his  mind.  The  second  characteristic  in  his  life 
which  impressed  me  was  his  humility.  He  was 
admired  by  every  one  who  ever  knew  him,  but  he 
never  considered  himself  above  any  of  his  fellows. 
He  never  sought  praise,  nor  did  he  like  publicity  and 
ostentation.  For  these  things  every  one  loved  him, 
and  I  shall  always  consider  it  one  of  the  great  privi- 
leges of  my  life  to  have  been  allowed  to  spend  three 
years  on  the  campus  with  him. 


BY  EARL  L.  KEATON. 

The  sorrow  of  a  State 
Cannot  be  sung  or  said. 

Now  that  its  noblest  son 
Lies  silent,  but  liot  dead. 


142  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

The  wound  that  Woflford  bears 
Is  cut  so  deep,  we  feel 

The  which  no  after  joy 
Can  ever  wholly  heal. 

No  place  on  earth  so  sweet, 
No  place  in  heaven  so  fair. 

But  that  this  sainted  soul 
Can  find  a  lodgment  there. 

His  life  to  emulate 
Would  be  a  high  ideal. 

For  it  was  patterned  after 
The  King  to  whom  all  kneel 


BY  THE  PRESTON  UTERARY  SOCIETY. 

Whereas  our  Heavenly  Father  has  seen  fit,  in  his 
infinite  wisdom,  to  call  unto  himself  our  most  es- 
teemed and  beloved  honorary  member.  Dr.  James 
H.  Carlisle ;  and 

Whereas  the  members  of  the  Preston  Literary 
Society  of  Wofford  College  have  suffered  an  Ir- 
reparable loss  in  the  death  of  him  whose  ever-glad 
words  of  encouragement,  manly  living,  and  lovable 
character  will  long  live  in  our  memory;  therefore 
be  it 

Resolved:  i.  That  we  extend  our  deepest  S3niipa- 
thy  to  the  bereaved  family  in  this  the  loss  of  one  so 
dear  to  them. 

2.  That  a  page  of  our  society  minute  book  be  in- 
scribed to  his  memory. 

3.  That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  sent  to  the 
bereaved  family  and  that  a  copy  be  published  in  the 


Tributes  to  Dr.  Carlisle.  143 

Wofford  College  Journal  and  the  Southern  Chris- 
tian  Advocate. 


BY  LANDER  COLLEGE. 

At  a  called  meeting  of  the  faculty  and  student 
body  of  Lander  College,  held  at  12  m.  October  21, 
1909,  the  following  was  adopted  by  a  rising  vote: 

Whereas  on  this  the  21st  day  of  October,  1909,  Dr.  James 
H.  Carlisle,  President  Emeritus  of  Wofford  College,  has  fallen 
on  sleep;  therefore 

Resolved  by  the  faculty  and  students  of  Lander  College: 
I,  That  we  share  with  the  family  and  Wofford  College,  with 
Spartanburg  and  South  Carolina,  with  Methodists  and  all 
Christendom,  in  the  great  bereavement  that  has  come  to  all  by 
the  death  of  Dr.  Carlisle. 

2.  That  even  in  our  sorrow  we  rejoice  over  the  splendid 
life  and  labors  of  the  departed  and  over  the  wide  influence  in 
Church  and  State  exercised  by  him  as  he  walked  with  God 
and  moved  among  men. 

3.  That  at  twelve  o'clock  to-day  and  at  the  hour  of  the 
funeral  our  school  work  be  suspended,  that  our  flag  fly  at  half 
mast  until  next  Tuesday,  and  that  a  representative  attend  the 
funeral  exercises. 

4.  That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  sent  to  the  family  of 
Dr.  Carlisle,  to  Wofford  College,  to  the  Southern  Christian 
Advocate,  and  to  the  Spartanburg  papers. 


BY   THE   CARUSLE   LITERARY    SOCIETY. 

Whereas  the  Supreme  Ruler  of  the  imiverse,  in 
his  infinite  wisdom,  has  moved  from  us  our  beloved 
Dr.  James  H.  Carlisle ;  and  y 

Whereas  this  society  has  the  honor  of  bearing 


144  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

his  name,  making  it  highly  befitting  that  we  record 
our  appreciation  of  him ;  therefore  be  it 

Resolved:  i.  That  the  removal  of  such  a  life  from 
our  midst  leaves  a  sorrow  and  a  wound  that  will  be 
deeply  felt  by  every  member  of  this  society. 

2.  That  the  lessons  he  has  taught  and  the  inspiring 
example  of  his  noble  life  will  ever  be  held  by  us  in 
grateful  remembrance. 

3.  That  we  rejoice  that  the  influence  of  the  exam- 
ple of  so  great  a  life  has  been  left  to  the  young  men 
of  this  entire  State,  and  especially  to  those  of  this 
society. 

4.  That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  put  upon 
the  records  of  this  society  and  that  a  copy  be  printed 
in  the  Southern  Christian  Advocate  and  in  the  Wof- 
ford  College  Journal. 


BY  THE  CALHOUN  UTERARY  SOCIETY. 

Whereas  our  Heavenly  Father  on  October  21, 
1909,  in  his  perfect  wisdom,  thought  best  to  close  the 
earthly  life  of  our  great  teacher.  Dr.  James  H.  Car- 
lisle, and  to  promote  him  to  his  eternal  home,  where 
he  will  never  know  pain  or  sorrow,  and  where  he 
can  live  a  life  far  greater  and  grander  than  could 
have  been  possible  here ;  therefore  be  it 

Resolved:  i.  That  we,  the  Calhoim  Literary  Soci- 
ety of  Wofford  G)llege,  deplore  more  than  words 
can  express  the  death  of  one  so  true,  lovable,  and 
popular  with  every  one  who  knew  him,    Dr,  Car- 


Tributes  to  Dr.  Carlisle.  145 

lisle  had  a  bright  and  cheerful  disposition  and  was 
always  generous  and  kind-hearted.  He  was  a  friend 
to  every  one  who  knew  him,  and  his  presence  among 
us  was  always  a  delight.  He  has  lived  a  pure  and 
noble  life,  of  which  we  all  are  proud. 

2.  That  we  extend  to  his  family  our  heartfelt 
sympathy  in  their  sore  bereavement. 

3.  That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  placed  on 
our  records  and  that  copies  be  sent  to  the  family  and 
to  the  press. 

BY  THE  CARLISLE  LITERARY  SOCIETY  OF  COLUMBIA  COLLEGE. 

Whereas  Dr.  James  H.  Carlisle  died  on  October 
21,  1909;  and 

Whereas  the  Carlisle  Literary  Society  has  been 
honored  by  the  privilege  of  bearing  his  name ;  there- 
fore be  it 

Resolved  by  this  society:  i.  That  we  deeply  la- 
ment his  death  and  the  loss  of  his  direct  influence 
upon  students  in  South  Carolina  and  upon  our- 
selves as  a  society. 

2.  That  we  rejoice  in  his  rich,  helpful  life  and  in 
the  life-giving  influence  that  he  has  left  us. 

3.  That  we  sincerely  and  deeply  sympathize  with 
the  bereaved  members  of  his  family. 

4.  That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  sent  to  Dr. 
Carlisle's  family  and  to  the  Criterion,  the  South- 
ern Christian  Advocate,  and  the  State  for  publica- 
tion. 

10 


146  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

11. 

By  Those  Who  Have  Known  Dr.  Carlisle 

Personally. 

FROM  ASSOCIATE  JUSTICE  WOODS. 

A  man  of  power  has  passed  from  the  life  into 
the  history  of  his  country.  His  death  brings  deep 
sorrow  to  the  hundreds  of  men  who  were  taught 
by  him  and  to  thousands  besides  who  loved  him. 
To  all  men  and  women  who  aspire  to  the  best 
things  for  their  country  it  brings  a  solemn  sense  of 
loss  to  the  cause  of  righteousness. 

To-day  it  would  be  best  for  those  of  us  who  held 
him  most  in  love  and  honor  to  sit  still  and  let  the 
memories  of  his  life  drift  through  our  thoughts  and 
thus  renew  the  high  ideals  which  he  helped  to  in- 
spire. But  you  ask  me,  as  one  of  his  old  students,  to 
write  an  appreciation  of  the  man;  and  though  the 
task  be  for  me  one  impossible  of  accomplishment,  I 
cannot  refuse  to  try. 

As  all  know,  Dr.  Carlisle  soon  after  his  gradua- 
tion at  South  Carolina  College  became  a  teacher. 
For  over  sixty  years  he  devoted  all  his  great  powers 
to  that  profession.  He  seems  to  have  regarded  his 
life  as  completely  consecrated  to  that  work  as 
though  he  had  taken  vows  before  an  altar.  No 
vicissitudes  of  public  disaster  or  personal  poverty, 
no  opportunities  for  promotion,  no  apparently  wider 
field  of  usefulness  could  move  him  from  his  purpose 
to  devote  his  life  to  trying  to  make  men  wiser  and 


Tributes  to  Dr.  Carlisle.  147 

better.  Whether  it  required  great  self-control  or 
self-denial  for  him  to  pursue  this  course,  perhaps 
no  one  can  tell ;  for  he  was  a  man  of  Spartan  sim- 
plicity and  sought  for  himself  nothing  except  good 
books,  congenial  friends,  and  a  sense  of  doing 
good. 

In  the  living  of  this  simple  life  which  distin- 
guished him  there  were  many  like  him  in  the  col- 
leges of  the  State  in  the  years  which  came  just  after 
the  catastrophe  of  1865.  Indeed,  the  simplicity  and 
purity  and  unbending  loyalty  to  ideals  of  the  men 
who  taught  in  our  small  colleges  in  those  days  en- 
noble the  calling  to  which  they  belonged  and  re- 
main as  a  heritage  and  inspiration  to  their  coun- 
trymen. The  State  college  was  closed,  the  State 
Treasury  was  in  the  hands  of  aliens,  and  the  people 
were  in  poverty.  The  debt  of  those  who  would  nev- 
er have  entered  a  college  door  but  for  men  like  Dr. 
Carlisle  can  never  be  estimated.  True,  the  equip- 
ment was  poor,  and  the  teaching  was  not  always  by 
the  best  methods;  but  there  was  daily  contact  with 
men  who  loved  the  best  books  and  aspired  to  the 
best  things  in  life.  Among  these  men,  Dr.  Carlisle 
was  preeminent  in  intellect,  in  character,  and  in  in- 
fluence. Dr.  Charles  Forster  Smith,  a  student  un- 
der him,  dedicates  to  him  a  recent  book  in  these 
words:  "The  best  man  I  have  ever  known  and  the 
most  potent  influence  in  my  life."  Perhaps  it  is 
not  remarkable  that  one  man,  however  eminent, 
should  say  that  of  another ;  but  it  is  remarkable  that 


148  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume, 

so  many  others  should  accept  these  words  of  Dr. 
Smith  as  expressing  their  own  estimate  and  feeling. 

What  was  the  source  of  this  power?  Dr.  Carlisle 
wrote  no  great  book;  he  made  no  great  discovery; 
he  took  little  part  in  the  public  councils  of  the  peo- 
ple; he  was  not  foremost  in  any  department  of 
learning;  as  a  college  executive  he  was  not  without 
faults.  Varying  answers  to  the  question  will  be 
given.  As  it  seems  to  me,  his  power  came  from 
three  main  sources:  First,  his  character,  his  attain- 
ing to  a  simple,  unselfish  life  without  guile,  his  striv- 
ing humbly  to  lead  his  people  to  the  highest  things. 
This  In  a  strong,  aggressive  man  is  the  greatest  ele- 
ment and  source  of  power.  Doubtless  there  are 
many  other  things  apparently  more  useful  and  pow- 
erful; but  he  made  good  his  belief  that  it  was  not 
the  glittering,  but  the  steady  and  white  light  that 
imparts  life. 

To  this  character  there  was  added  in  him  the 
most  profound  optimism.  He  had  unfailing  faith 
that  truth  and  virtue  would  in  the  long  run  prevail 
over  falsehood  and  vice.  And,  what  was  more  Im- 
portant in  his  influence  in  inspiring  others  to  strive 
for  righteousness  and  enlightenment,  he  was  always 
insistent  on  the  capacity  of  the  average  man  to  take 
charge  of  his  own  heart  and  mind  and  elevate  him- 
self. More  than  this,  his  own  convictions  were  so 
strong  on  these  subjects  and  his  personal  magnetism 
so  great  that  the  least  aspiring  could  hardly  come 
within  this  sphere  of  his  influence  without  feeling 


Tributes  to  Dr.  Carlisle.  149 

the  chief  end  of  life  to  be  the  attainment  of  the 
highest  will  power  and  its  consecration  to  the  ac- 
quirement of  knowledge  and  to  the  doing  of  good. 

The  third  element  of  his  power  was  eloquence. 
I  do  not  mean  by  eloquence  merely  brilliant  expres- 
sion, polished  gesture,  rounded  periods,  or  artistic 
polish.  Some  of  these  he  had  without  effort.  But 
his  was  the  eloquence  which  moved  the  emotions  too 
deeply  to  admit  of  outward  demonstration,  which 
carried  conviction  to  the  mind  and  aroused  the 
whole  man  to  the  best  of  aspirations  and  possibilities. 
He  who  could  listen  and  not  feel  that  he  had  been 
under  the  influence  of  a  great  human  power  was  in- 
deed poor  in  spirit. 

One  scarcely  dares,  over  the  bier  of  a  man  so  mod- 
est and  retiring,  to  speak  of  the  influence  and  charm 
of  his  social  life;  but  I  cannot  refrain  from  one 
word.  He  had  a  personal  interest  in  every  college 
student  he  knew  and  had  the  rare  power  of  inspiring 
awe  and  affection  at  the  same  time.  He  always 
remembered  the  men  who  had  been  at  Wofford  Col- 
lege and  so  watched  their  careers  in  college  and  in 
after  life  that  he  made  every  man  know  that  he  was 
expecting  of  him  the  best  achievement  of  which  he 
was  capable.  His*  memory  was  a  storehouse  of  the 
best  things  in  literature,  of  the  history  and  traditions 
of  his  own  people,  and  of  reminiscences  of  great 
men  of  his  own  time.  The  charm  with  which  he 
used  these  treasures  in  social  life  will  not  be  forgot- 
ten by  those  who  had  the  privilege  of  his  friendship. 


150  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

Yet  he  possessed  more  markedly  than  any  other  man 
I  have  known  the  spiritual  holy  of  holies  where  no 
man  entered  with  him.  He  was  intensely  religious, 
in  the  sense  that  he  was  a  devoted  Christian  and 
lived  in  the  highest  spiritual  atmosphere ;  but  he  was 
a  man  too  humble  and  wise  to  try  to  influence  men 
by  any  creed  except  that  of  love  and  duty. 

The  death  of  a  man  to  whom  it  was  given  to  live  a 
long  and  full  life  in  the  blessing  of  others  by  the 
exercise  of  these  powers  should  not  be  marked  by 
gloom  and  sad  refrains,  but  rather  by  anthems  of 
praise  and  triumph  that  all  his  life  he  stood  fast 
and  gave  strength  and  hope  to  men.  We  know  not 
of  his  future  beyond  this  life;  but  there  can  be  no 
agnosticism  and  no  skepticism  that  he  is 

"Of  those  immortal  dead  who  live  ag^ain 
In  minds  made  better  by  their  presence :  live 
In  pulses  stirred  to  generosity, 
In  deeds  of  daring  rectitude,  in  scorn 
For  miserable  aims  that  end  in  self, 
In  thoughts  sublime  that  pierce  the  night  like  stars. 
And  with  their  mild  persistence  urge  man's  search 
To  vaster  issues." 
Marion,  S.  C 

SENATOR  E.  D.  SMITH's  TRIBUTE. 

Every  one  has  to  have  a  standard  of  comparison, 
and  upon  the  perfection  of  that  standard  depends 
the  proper  appreciation  of  things  compared  and  a 
just  measurement  of  things  measured. 

This  is  the  reason  that  the  students  of  Wofford 


Tributes  to  Dr.  Carlisle.  151 

College  have  such  a  high  sense  of  intellectual,  reli- 
gious, and  moral  character,  for  James  H.  Carlisle 
was  to  the  student  body  the  embodiment  of  a  per- 
fect Christian  character.  His  profound  faith  in 
God,  his  profound  belief  in  Christ,  together  with  his 
intellectual  power,  made  him  grand  and  awe-inspir- 
ing to  the  student  body.  Whenever  he  spoke  to 
them  on  subjects  relating  to  spiritual  things  or  as 
touching  the  Deity,  he  did  it  with  such  sincerity  and 
earnestness,  such  power  and  humility,  that  he  gave 
the  impression  that  his  communion  with  these  forces 
was  real,  intimate,  and  vital. 

His  everyday  life,  both  in  the  classroom  and  out 
of  it,  was  so  earnest  and  consecrated  that  contact 
with  him  rebuked  all  that  was  lowest  and  most 
unworthy,  while  it  inspired  a  real  healthy  ambition 
to  attain  all  that  was  best  as  student  and  man. 

I  do  not  believe  that  it  was  possible  for  any  one 
to  be  under  the  tutelage  of  James  H.  Carlisle  or 
even  to  come  in  contact  with  him  daily  without  being 
better  or  worse — ^better  by  having  his  standard  of 
manhood  infinitely  raised  and  attempting  to  meas- 
ure up  to  that  standard  or  worse  by  refusing  to  fol- 
low this  higher  vision. 

My  feeling  toward  Dr.  Carlisle  as  a  student  and 
since  college  days  as  a  man  is  hard  to  express.  A 
profound  respect  for  his  purity,  for  his  faith,  and 
admiration  for  his  intellectual  power;  a  great  love 
for  the  great  Christian  heart  that  yearned  for  the 
mental,  moral,  and  spiritual  uplift  to  young  men — 


152  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

combine  all  these,  and  the  resultant  is  what  I  feel  for 
this  the  greatest  man  that  South  Carolina  has  ever 
produced. 

I  am  sure  that  the  one  characteristic  of  Dr.  Car- 
lisle that  drew  him  closer  to  the  student  body  than 
anything  else  was  his  great  yearning  that  the  boy  at 
college  for  the  first  time  should  not  disappoint  the 
mother  and  father  at  home  making  such  sacrifices, 
hoping  such  hopes,  and  dreaming  such  dreams  for 
their  boy.  He  could  come  nearer  voicing  that  yearn- 
ing and  standing  in  the  parents'  stead  than  any  teach- 
er it  has  ever  been  my  fortune  to  meet. 

I  know  that,  as  to  the  little  successes  which  have 
come  to  me  since  college  days,  I  have  felt  the  same 
desire  to  go  back  to  Dr.  Carlisle  and  carry  the  little 
trophies  I  have  won  and  lay  them  at  his  feet  as  a 
tribute  to  what  he  has  done  for  me  and  hoped  for  me 
that  I  have  felt  in  taking  them  back  to  my  mother. 

Dr.  Carlisle  differed  from  other  educators  in  one 
great  respect:  he  never  seemed  to  desire  that  we 
should  at  any  cost  become  scholars,  but  that  at  any 
cost  we  should  do  our  duty  and  meet  the  obligations 
that  came  to  us  as  men.  Then  if  scholarship  was 
the  result,  well  and  good;  but  If  not,  there  were 
to  be  no  regrets,  provided  we  had  faithfully,  hon- 
estly, and  to  the  fullest  possible  extent  met  the  ob- 
ligations of  student  life. 

His  respect  for  the  honest,  plodding  mediocre  was 
as  profound  and  real  as  for  the  most  brilliant  stu- 
dent, provided  both  did  their  duty. 


Tributes  to  Dr.  Carlisle.  153 

He  never  flattered  the  brilliant  one,  nor  did  he 
patronize  the  unfortunate  one.  To  him  both  were 
men  made  in  the  image  of  God,  fitted  into  the 
scheme  of  life  by  a  grander  and  diviner  than  hu- 
man force ;  and  both  were  to  be  respected,  each  in 
his  sphere  of  life. 

The  success  of  Wofford  College  as  a  place  of 
education  is  due  largely  to  the  fact  that  contact  with 
this  great  man  was  an  education  in  itself,  a  living 
illustration  of  all  that  proper  education  stands  for. 

It  is  idle  to  speak  of  filling  his  place.  No  old 
student  of  his  will  ever  expect  it  to  be  filled  any 
more  than  he  expects  the  place  of  his  dead  mother 
to  be  filled.  His  spirit  will  exert  its  great  Influence 
over  Wofford  and  her  children  as  long  as  men  as- 
pire to  attain  to  all  that  is  best  and  purest  in  life. 


FROM   CHANCELLOR   KIRKLAND. 


In  the  death  of  Dr.  Carlisle,  South  Carolina  has 
lost  its  greatest  citizen.  He  was  a  man  without  a 
peer,  great  in  Intellectual  attainments  and  greater 
still  In  character.  His  influence  over  the  students 
of  Wofford  College  was  the  great  factor  In  the  his- 
tory of  that  institution  for  thirty  years  after  the 
Civil  War.  The  college  had  little  endowment  and 
no  equipment,  but  It  had  Dr.  Carlisle.  To  know 
him,  to  partake  of  his  spirit,  to  enter  into  the  high 
places  of  his  thought,  to  share  his  Ideals,  to  feel  the 
largeness  of  his  sympathy  and  the  sincerity  of  his 


154  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume.  - 

Christian  character  was  an  education  in  itself.  His 
life  was  a  perpetual  call  to  high  things.  His  pupils 
of  olden  days  will  cherish  his  memory  as  they  cher- 
ish virtue,  knowledge,  and  truth.  In  the  best  that 
they  do  he  will  ever  be  present.  Through  them  he 
yet  speaks  in  multiplied  form  and  place. 


BY  W.  G.  BLAKE. 

They  say  he's  dead !    Prone  lies  the  noble  form — 
The  form  that  cold,  material  nature  set 
Her  stamp  of  honor  on  to  laud  herself. 
They  say  he's  dead !    The  great,  the  gentle  heart 
Is  still — the  heart  that  was  as  deep  as  love 
And  broad  as  all  humanity.    The  brain, 
The  mighty  brain  that  wisdom  did  reflect 
Straight  from  the  throne  of  Truth ;  the  ready  lips 
That  lent  their  willing  service  to  the  brain; 
The  hands  that  knew  no  resting  from  God's  work- 
All,  all  are  cold,  so  cold  and  still !    And  now 
They  say  he's  dead !    Ah !  no,  no,  no !    Not  dead. 
Unless  sweet  spring  be  dead  when  winter  reigns. 
Or  glorious  day  be  dead  when  evening  falls, 
Or  music's  soul  be  dead  when  mute  the  strings. 
And  slumber  folds  awhile  the  player's  hands. 
Yon  constant  sun  that  proudly  rules  the  heaven 
And  breeds  a  myriad  life  through  land  and  sea — 
Yon  sun,  which  is  life's  life,  may  pale,  may  die. 
And  hang  a  blackened  cinder  in  his  place, 
But  that  which  tabernacled  in  this  clay 
Is  lord  of  death !    The  something  that  was  here — 
That  emanation  rare  that  fashions  men. 
Enriches  earth,  and  peoples  heaven — dies  not. 
Aye,  verily,  'tis  that  whereof  is  made 
Bright  immortality  and  walks  adown 
The  shining  arcades  of  eternity 
Hand-clasped  with  God! 


Tributes  to  Dr.  Carlisle.  155 

FROM   J.   J.    m'sWAIN. 

Permit  a  word  from  one  who  was  not  privileged 
to  be  a  student  under  Dr.  Carlisle  to  add  one  word 
of  testimony  to  his  true  greatness,  to  make  the  par- 
tial estimate  of  the  onlooker.  It  was  simply  marvel- 
ous to  see  the  veneration — ^yea,  reverence — in  which 
his  very  name  was  held  in  audiences  few  of  whom 
had  ever  seen  him.  It  is  notable  how  seldom  Dr. 
Carlisle  spoke  in  public  and  how  conservative  and 
guarded  were  all  his  utterances.  Consider  again 
how  little  he  wrote  and  how  little  of  "startling  orig- 
inality" there  was  in  his  contribution  to  the  press. 
Then  why  this  universal  love  and  respect  for  one 
whom  they  had  never  seen,  never  heard,  and  after 
whom  they  had  seldom,  if  ever,  read?  I  think  it 
must  have  been  with  others,  as  it  was  with  me,  that 
the  belief  prevailed  that  in  Dr.  Carlisle  the  elements 
were  so  mixed  that  all  the  world  might  stand  up  and 
say:  "Here  is  a  man."  In  his  self-mastery,  in  his 
unselfishness,  in  his  self-surrender  for  an  ideal,  in 
his  patient,  consistent  faith  that  the  best  in  a  boy 
would  finally  triumph,  In  the  loving  solicitude  with 
which  he  followed  each  Individual  who  had  been  un- 
der him — for  all  these  and  more  Dr.  Carlisle  kept 
unconsciously  pressing  upon  the  attention  of  the 
even  unattentlve  people  that  he  possessed  and  mani- 
fested something  of  that  divine  nature  after  which 
his  life  was  modeled.  Though  by  more  than  half 
a  century  of  service  Dr.  Carlisle  was  the  especial 
possession  of  Wofford  College,  yet  by  his  life  and 


156  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

living  and  by  his  death  and  memory  he  becomes  the 
property  of  all  the  people  of  the  State. 


FROM   PRESIDENT  S.  C.   MITCHELL. 

It  was  an  impressive  sight  to  witness  the  tribute 
which  the  people  of  South  Carolina  paid  Dr.  James 
H.  Carlisle.  The  fact  that  they  singled  out  such  a 
man  as  the  chief  object  of  their  affection  and  admi- 
ration bespeaks  the  nobility  of  the  soul  of  the  peo- 
ple of  this  State.  The  vast  concourse  of  people 
gathered  on  the  campus  of  Wofford  College  around 
that  bier  represented  all  the  different  religious  de- 
nominations, all  factions  in  politics,  all  sections  of 
the  State  and  classes  of  people,  without  regard  to 
wealth  or  social  distinction ;  and  yet  that  great  com- 
pany were  united  in  their  feelings  of  reverence  and 
gratitude  for  the  moral  power  exhibited  by  that 
simple  teacher  who  for  threescore  years  had  lived 
among  them.  Essentially  strong  at  heart  is  any 
nation  that  retains  so  clear  a  vision  as  to  things  in 
life  that  are  really  worth  while.  The  greatness  of 
Dr.  Carlisle  was  singularly  clear-cut.  It  was  not 
due  to  wealth  nor  to  social  distinction  nor  to  official 
eminence  nor  to  creative  scholarship.  His  greatness 
was  due  to  the  sheer  force  of  personality  and  moral 
power.  I  do  not  know  of  any  Instance  that  reveals 
so  clearly  the  projectlonal  force  of  character  stripped 
of  all  adventitious  things. 

Citizen  after  citizen  in  Spartanburg  told  me  how 


Tributes  to  Dr.  Carlisle.  157 

influential  Dr.  Carlisle  had  been  in  materially  build- 
ing up  that  city,  in  imparting  the  impulse  to  prog- 
ress, in  promoting  industries,  in  developing  the 
spirit  of  cooperation  and  enterprise,  in  setting  high 
business  ideals.  This  alone  was  a  signal  achieve- 
ment, for  the  expansive  energies  in  Spartanburg 
command  the  attention  of  every  thoughtful  man. 
It  is  becoming  a  hive  of  industry  and  a  center  of 
wealth  and  influence.  And  yet  it  is  to  be  noted  that 
the  man  who  is  regarded  as  in  some  measure  re- 
sponsible for  this  progress  remained  poor  and 
scorned  mammon.  He  loved  progress,  but  his  mind 
never  became  materialized.  He  kept  it  clearly  in 
view  that  material  development  is  good  only  so  far 
as  it  ministers  to  the  health,  intellectual  prowess, 
and  moral  sanity  of  all  the  people. 

Wofford  College  is  the  monument  of  Dr.  Carlisle. 
The  spirit  of  service  which  he  showed  throughout 
his  long  career  throbs  in  this  noble  institution.  I 
have  long  felt  that  I  could  tell,  as  by  an  earmark,  the 
men  whom  the  famous  Gessner  Harrison,  of  the 
University  of  Virginia,  trained — men  like  the  late 
Bishop  Dudley,  of  Kentucky,  William  Wert  Henry, 
John  A.  Broadus,  Col.  Archer  Anderson,  of  Vir- 
ginia, and  Dr.  E.  S.  Joynes.  All  of  these  men  were 
characterized  by  a  moderation  in  expression,  a  just- 
ness of  thought,  a  nice  sense  of  proportion  that 
reminds  one  of  the  full-orbed  culture  of  the  Greeks. 
So  with  the  men  of  Wofford.     Wherever  I  meet 


158  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

them  I  discover  in  them  a  rich  human  sympathy  and 
breadth  of  view  and,  above  all,  the  spirit  of  social 
service. 

The  labors  of  Dr.  Carlisle,  however,  in  the  cause 
of  education  were  not  confined  to  one  institution. 
His  personality  gave  strength  to  every  school  in  the 
State  and  imparted  dignity  to  the  humble  calling  of 
the  teacher.  The  end  of  education  is  character,  and 
his  career  furnished  a  splendid  example  of  charac- 
ter in  the  beauty  of  its  growth  and  in  its  subtle  effect 
on  the  youth  of  the  commonwealth.  He  was  more 
than  a  mere  teacher  in  a  college ;  he  was  an  exemplar 
of  civic  righteousness.  The  State  has  invested  in 
the  University  of  South  Carolina  since  its  founda- 
tion in  1805  about  two  million  dollars.  If  the  sole 
product  of  that  investment  had  been  Dr.  James  H. 
Carlisle  alone,  the  State  would,  in  my  opinion,  be 
amply  repaid  for  every  penny  that  it  has  expended 
for  this  institution.  South  Carolina  has  lost  a  fore- 
most citizen  and  the  university  its  most  illustrious 
alumnus. 


FROM   GOVERNOR  ANSEL. 

All  South  Carolina  mourns  at  the  death  of  one  of 
her  best  and  most  horored  citizens.  Dr.  James  H. 
Carlisle  has  been  called  to  his  reward.  His  name 
and  memory  will  ever  be  cherished  and  loved.  He 
was  foremost  in  all  good  works  and  the  leader  of 
education  in  this  State  for  many  years. 


Tributes  to  Dr.  Carlisle.  159 

FROM   HON.   SAMUEL  DIBBLE,  THE  FIRST  GRADUATE  OF  WOFFORD. 

Dr.  Carlisle's  pupils  honor  him  as  a  great  pre- 
ceptor, realize  the  salutary  influence  of  his  life  and 
teaching  upon  their  own  lives,  and  loved  him  with 
the  affection  of  children  to  a  parent.  Dr.  Carlisle 
and  Wade  Hampton  I  consider  the  greatest  South 
Carolinians  I  have  ever  met — the  one  a  moral  and 
intellectual  trainer  of  young  men  whose  record  is 
equal  to  that  of  Socrates,  the  other  a  leader  of  his 
people  in  war  and  peace,  both  of  them  exemplars  of 
the  highest  types  of  devotion  to  lofty  interests  and 
high  ideals.  Each  in  his  sphere  contributed  more 
than  any  other  to  the  rehabilitation  of  a  prostrate 
State  and  were  the  heroes  facile  princeps  of  their 
generation  in  South  Carolina. 


FROM  ARTHUR  W.  PAGE,  IN  WORLD  S  WORK,  JUNE,  I907. 

For  the  last  fifty  years  the  dominant  figure  at 
Wofford  College  has  been  Dr.  James  H.  Carlisle. 
Without  either  money  or  political  power,  this  old 
man,  by  the  strength  of  his  character,  has  kept  edu- 
cation in  its  broadest  sense  alive  even  in  the  ex- 
treme poverty  of  the  people  just  after  the  war  and 
has  saved  it  from  being  swamped  by  the  successful 
commercialism  of  the  present  time.  I  heard  one 
man  ask  another  what  he  had  studied  under  Dr. 
Carlisle.  "Astronomy,"  was  the  answer.  "Did 
you  learn  anything?"  the  first  one  asked.  "Yes," 
answered  the  other ;  "I  learned  to  be  a  man."    There 


i6o  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

is  no  commercial  standard  in  which  the  influence  of 
Dr.  Carlisle  and  Wofford  College  can  be  measured. 


FROM  RION  M  KISSICK. 

How  clearly  I  recall  one  winter  night  when  in 
my  room  at  Harvard  I  read  of  the  visit  of  President 
Eliot  to  Spartanburg  and  of  the  striking  scene  pre- 
sented when  he  and  Dr.  Carlisle  greeted  each  other ! 
Yet  a  thought  struck  me  then,  as  now,  that,  though 
they  were  parallel  in  many  things,  in  the  larger 
sense  of  personal  influence  Dr.  Carlisle's  work  shone 
luminous  far  above  that  of  the  New  England  schol- 
ar. In  the  upbuilding  of  human  character  and  in 
genuine  helpfulness  to  his  fellow  men  the  lovable 
teacher  who  lived  out  there  in  the  quiet  and  peace 
of  Wofford  was  a  mightier  man  than  Eliot,  sur- 
rounded by  the  power  and  wealth  of  the  greatest 
American  university. 

Men  may  come  and  men  may  go  to  Harvard ;  but 
to  them  President  Eliot  was  almost  unknown,  and 
but  few  of  them  ever  exchanged  a  word  with  him. 
Nobody  thought  of  going  to  him  for  advice  except 
the  graduate  students,  who  at  best  were  far  removed 
from  the  world.  Eliot  was  a  great,  cold  figure  liv- 
ing in  a  house  that  none  thought  of  entering.  How 
different  with  Dr.  Carlisle  and  his  house,  where  no 
student  needed  an  open  sesame  to  admit  him !  Out 
of  it  came  men  better  than  when  they  went  in,  and 
the  sum  total  of  the  influence  of  that  kindly  and 


Tributes  to  Dr.  Carlisle.  i6i 

helpful  man  of  God  no  one  could  dare  to  estimate. 
True  now  the  saying:  "Ulysses  is  gone,  and  there  is 
none  left  in  Ithica  that  can  bend  his  bow." 


FROM  CHARLES  PETTY. 


In  speaking  of  Dr.  Carlisle  any  one  who  has 
known  him  well  and  who  has  come  under  his  influ- 
ence might  use  many  adjectives  in  his  praise  and  not 
exceed  the  bounds  of  truth.  But  it  is  certain  that  if 
he  had  dictated  any  notices  of  his  life  and  work 
there  would  have  been  few  adjectives.  While  he 
appreciated  the  good  opinion  of  his  friends,  he  never 
courted  outspoken  praise.  He  was  always  humiliat- 
ed when  indiscreet  speakers  referred  to  him,  espe- 
cially when  he  was  present.  He  was  a  modest,  hum- 
ble, strong,  faithful  man.  He  did  not  seek  his  own. 
He  never  took  any  delight  in  the  applause  of  the 
crowd.  He  preferred  silent,  thoughtful,  earnest 
attention  to  the  words  he  spoke.  He  never  consid- 
ered that  he  had  made  or  could  make  a  big  speech. 

As  a  teacher  he  differed  from  all  under  whose  in- 
fluence it  was  my  privilege  to  come.  Some  of  the 
drummers  who  are  pushing  special  goods  have  what 
they  call  "side  lines" — that  is,  in  the  leisure  hours 
in  a  town  they  take  orders  aside  from  their  regular 
business.  Dr.  Carlisle  had  many  side  lines  in  teach- 
ing. A  wise  reader  can  get  as  much  by  reading  be- 
tween the  lines  of  a  good  book  as  he  gets  from  the 
text.  The  student  got  more  out  of  the  lesson  he 
II 


1 62  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

taught  than  the  author  of  the  textbook  ever  dreamed 
of  putting  in. 

He  was  the  most  silent  teacher  it  was  ever  our 
privilege  to  be  under.  Some  young  teachers,  and 
olders  ones  too,  talk  themselves  out  of  breath  and 
talk  the  classes  out  of  all  patience.  Dr.  Carlisle 
spoke  few  words  during  a  recitation.  When  a  stu- 
dent made  a  flat  failure,  his  silence  and  expression 
of  pity  were  infinitely  worse  than  an  open  rebuke. 
His  aim  was  not  to  get  mathematics  into  the  stu- 
dent's mind,  but  to  get  manhood,  virile  effort,  and 
a  laudable  ambition  into  him.  He  never  played  the 
detective,  but  he  could  tell  from  the  appearance  of 
a  student  or  the  manner  in  which  he  recited  whether 
he  was  walking  surely  and  uprightly  or  not.  He 
never  made  any  pointed  references  to  any  one's 
misconduct  before  the  class,  but  he  had  a  way  of 
inviting  a  young  man  to  call  at  his  study  at  a  certain 
hour.  No  one  ever  knew  what  was  said  in  those 
interviews  unless  the  students  told,  and  they  were 
not  apt  to  do  so.  He  had  another  way  of  maintain- 
ing the  highest  discipline.  Sometimes  he  would  say 
to  a  student:  "I  should  like  to  see  you  after  recita- 
tion a  few  minutes."  When  they  were  alone,  he 
would  say  about  these  words:  "Two  of  your  friends 
are  falling  behind  in  their  work.  You  have  some 
influence  with  them.  See  what  you  can  do  to  help 
them."  In  that  way  he  endeavored  to  reach  out  and 
keep  a  strong  grip  on  every  boy  in  college. 

Never  did  any  one,  however  he  might  neglect  his 


Tributes  to  Dr.  Carlisle.  163 

studies,  come  under  his  influence  without  being  ben- 
efited. Several  years  ago  a  man  with  much  busi- 
ness on  hand  said:  "I  was  at  WofTord  only  a  short 
time  and  did  not  behave  well  nor  hurt  myself  at 
study;  but  if  I  am  worth  anything  to-day,  I  am 
greatly  indebted  to  Dr.  Carlisle  for  the  good  influ- 
ence he  had  on  me." 

His  teaching  extended  far  beyond  the  college  cam- 
pus. He  was  always  ready  by  public  lecture  or  with 
pen  to  give  the  public  the  knowledge  he  possessed. 
He  would  go  out  to  a  country  schoolhouse  or  a 
church  and  make  a  talk  that  would  never  be  forgot- 
ten. A  few  years  ago  he  handed  the  writer  a  letter 
written  to  him  by  a  lady  in  the  country.  She  stated 
that  at  a  certain  place  he  had  made  a  speech  when 
she  was  a  young  woman.  It  was  so  helpful  and  in- 
spiring to  her  that  she  would  like  for  him  to  repro- 
duce it,  because  her  children  were  growing  up,  and 
she  wanted  his  very  words  for  them.  The  Doctor 
had  forgotten  making  the  talk.  He  possessed  in  an 
eminent  degree  that  high  virtue  of  forgetting  a  kind- 
ness when  he  had  conferred  it  on  others.  It  has 
been  my  privilege  to  hear  him  talk  to  large  crowds 
and  to  small  audiences  in  the  country,  and  I  verily 
believe  that  his  best  talks  were  made  to  plain  country 
people.  That  is  a  rare  faculty  possessed  by  few 
public  speakers. 

Above  all  men  I  have  known,  he  had  the  power 
of  inspiring  thought  in  others.  He  was  not  a  gen- 
ius, nor  was  he  a  scholar  in  the  technical  meaning  of 


164  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

that  word;  but  he  was  more  than  a  genius  and  a 
scholar.  In  a  wonderful  way  he  could  appropriate 
the  thought  and  suggestions  of  others  and  by  a  proc- 
ess of  his  own  mold  them  over,  reshape  them,  and 
present  them  in  a  new  and  forcible  way.  In  his  talks 
he  came  up  to  the  celebrated  John  Foster's  standard 
of  a  public  speaker,  who  said  that  he  did  not  want  a 
speaker  after  the  manner  of  an  auctioneer  who 
would  sell  thread  from  a  spool  a  yard  at  a  time  in- 
stead of  throwing  out  the  whole  spool  and  saying, 
"Here,  take  this,"  and  then  throw  out  others  in 
quick  succession.  Dr.  Carlisle  never  unwound  his 
spools,  but  threw  them  out  rapidly  one  after  an- 
other and  often  so  rapidly  that  the  untrained  hearer 
could  not  catch  them  all. 

In  all  this  half  century  here  there  Is  not  a  man  or 
woman,  white  or  black,  who  has  not  come  more  or 
less  under  his  influence.  There  was  no  child  too 
small  or  too  poor  or  too  humble  to  be  unnoticed  by 
him.  Years  ago  a  little,  dirty,  half-clothed,  bare- 
footed boy  went  into  a  printing  office  for  work.  He 
was  given  a  place.  By  degrees  he  worked  away, 
and  he  is  now  proprietor  of  a  job  printing  office. 
He- has  a  home,  an  interesting  family,  and  a  bright 
outlook.  He  once  said  to  the  writer  about  these 
words  and  more :  "You  remember  when  I  first  went 
to  your  office.  I  was  hungry,  for  times  were  hard 
at  our  home.  But  well  do  I  remember  Dr.  Carlisle 
often  coming  in  to  see  you;  and  he  would  put  his 
hand  gently  on  my  dirty  head  and  say:  'How  is  my 


Tributes  to  Dr.  Carlisle.  165 

little  Benjamin  Franklin  to-day?'  His  kind  words 
and  recognition  have  done  me  much  good,  and  his 
interest  in  me  helped  to  make  me  what  I  am.  I 
owe  him  much."  Hundreds  of  such  stories  could  be 
published. 

To  know  Dr.  Carlisle  in  his  private  life  was  a 
liberal  education.  He  was  the  most  gentle  man. 
He  had  the  highest  regard  for  other  people's  opin- 
ions. He  never  had  words  of  abuse  for  another 
man's  religion  or  politics.  When  others  were  trou- 
bled in  mind  about  the  public  utterances  of  those 
who  attacked  Christianity,  he  was  not  moved.  The 
so-called  "new  thought"  gave  him  no  trouble.  He 
never  in  his  public  talks,  or  private  ones  either, 
made  any  reference  to  the  religious  side  of  his  life. 
He  just  simply  lived  religion  every  day.  The  per- 
sonal equation  in  religion  he  kept  hidden  In  his  own 
breast,  as  all  true  Christians  do.  He  was  never  a 
shining  light  in  class  meeting.  He  was  modest,  rev- 
erent, thoughtful,  earnest,  without  any  display  of 
emotions.  One  peculiarity  in  his  private  talks  or 
public  addresses  was  that  he  seldom  mentioned  any 
of  the  names  of  Deity.  So  great  was  his  reverence 
that  he  avoided  doing  that  as  much  as  he  possibly 
could. 

Of  course  we  all  feel  that  "we  shall  never  look 
upon  his  like  again" ;  but  his  influence,  his  example, 
and  the  memory  of  his  good  and  pure  life  are  our 
rich  heritage. 


i66  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

FROM   T.   B.  THACKSTCN, 

A  patriarch  in  Israel  has  fallen  asleep;  and  we 
shall  not  see  his  like  again,  at  least  not  in  this  gen- 
eration. Surely  the  older  ones  of  us  who  came  un- 
der the  magic  spell  of  his  influence  in  years  agone 
will  not  permit  the  record  of  his  unselfish  life  to  be 
forgotten  by  the  youth  of  the  land.  Here  is  a  sug- 
gestion: Let  those  of  us  who  as  students  were  so 
fortunate  as  to  sit  and  learn  at  the  feet  of  this  mod- 
ern Gamaliel,  as  well  as  those  who  were  privileged 
to  listen  to  his  public  addresses  and  who  can  now 
recall  the  matchless  words  of  wisdom  that  fell  from 
his  lips — ^let  us,  one  and  all,  run  back  over  the  pages 
of  memory  and  embody  in  communications  to  the 
county  papers  the  impressive  incidents  and  the  spe- 
cific utterances  that  then  thrilled  and  moved  us  to 
higher  ideals  and  to  nobler  living.  Let  his  words 
and  his  works  be  handed  down  from  sire  to  son 
through  the  cycles  of  the  ages  yet  to  be.  Truly  no 
one  individual  can  write  the  full  and  complete  biog- 
raphy of  Dr.  James  H.  Carlisle ;  but  each  and  all  of 
us,  by  contributing  a  little  here  and  there,  may  pre- 
sent a  faint  portraiture  of  his  true  personality  and 
may  thus  help  to  disclose  the  secret  of  his  great 
power  in  molding  and  fashioning  the  lives  and  char- 
acters of  the  young  men  of  South  Carolina. 


FROM   P.   H.   FIKE. 

From  young  manhood  to  far  beyond  the  allot- 
ted time  of  man,   James   H.   Carlisle  unselfishly 


Tributes  to  Dr.  Carlisle.  167 

poured  out  the  stainless,  unsullied  life  of  a  full- 
grown  man  for  the  betterment  of  the  young  men 
who  have  stood  under  the  sound  of  his  voice  and 
listened  at  his  feet  to  the  words  of  wisdom  and 
encouragement  and  practical  help  and  suggestion. 
In  talking  to  men  to-day  who  have  been  fortunate 
in  having  had  the  benefit  of  his  instructions — and 
many  of  them  measure  up  to  a  success  in  the  control 
of  commercial,  financial,  industrial,  and  professional 
pursuits  in  this  modern  town — all  agree  that  the 
great  "heart  power"  was  that  preeminent  charac- 
teristic of  this  wonderfully  great  man.  Some  term 
it  by  another  name,  but  "heart  power"  best  expresses 
it.  Of  great  physical  stature  and  gigantic  mental 
proportions,  Dr.  Carlisle  was  endowed  with  an 
acute,  analytical  mind,  for  the  development  of  which 
he  spared  no  opportunity  of  energy  in  securing  his 
education  at  the  State  University  under  such  a  co- 
terie of  teachers  as  Lieber,  Henry,  and  Thornwell, 
whose  very  names  suggest  letters. 

Only  those  who  have  occupied  the  position  of 
student  to  this  remarkable  man  can  appreciate  the 
timidity  and  reverence  with  which  his  name  or  life 
work  is  mentioned.  When  all  is  said  or  done,  it  is 
the  personal  equation  that  outweighs  all  else  in  any 
estimate  of  results  or  character.  No  teacher  ever 
possessed  the  personality  of  Dr.  Carlisle.  To  see  the 
man  and  be  thrown  with  him  once,  one  would  feel 
that  a  mean,  low,  vicious  thought  was  foreign  to 
him.    He  was  firm  of  manner  and  tone  in  the  reci- 


i68  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

tation  room,  but  approachable  to  a  degree  that  made 
him  worshiped  by  his  students. 

And  the  fifty-five  years  of  service  to  Wofford 
quickened  and  invigorated  his  intellectual  powers 
and  broadened  his  work.  With  the  coming  and 
going  of  the  classes  there  was  no  fatigue  or  wearing 
away;  and,  stranger  still,  the  kindly  interest  of  the 
man  followed  his  students  far  beyond  the  college 
walls  and  into  their  pursuits  of  life.  He  never  dis- 
missed interest  in  a  student  when  the  latter  parted 
from  the  college  campus  for  good,  and  hundreds 
to-day  likely  have  letters  of  help  and  comfort  and 
encouragement  that  have  found  their  way  to  them 
years  after  their  college  days. 

Would  a  personal  incident  be  in  good  taste  ?  Ten 
or  twelve  years  after  my  college  days  at  Wofford 
the  paper  on  which  I  was  employed  changed  owner- 
ship. It  was  in  the  midsummer  time.  All  the  help 
on  the  "sheet"  were  at  sea,  so  far  as  knowing  wheth- 
er they  would  be  retained  or  not.  The  new  pro- 
prietor called  me  in  one  sultry  evening  and  said: 
"You  ought  to  feel  highly  honored.  Dr.  Carlisle 
walked  down  to  my  office  from  Wofford  campus 
this  hot  afternoon  and  requested  me  to  retain  you 
in  your  present  position  on  the  paper.**  It  is  need- 
less to  add  that  I  was  far  more  surprised  than  the 
owner  of  the  paper.  This  merely  shows  the  great 
heart  power  of  the  man. 

When  a  student  I  have  often  wondered  at  the 
great   magnetism   he    exerted   in.   the   classrooms. 


Tributes  to  Dr.  Carlisle.  169 

What  man  is  there  in  this  country  who  was  at  Wof- 
ford  in  the  early  nineties  but  recalls  that  little  poem 
Dr.  Carlisle  recited  as  he  only  could  give  expression, 
"The  Bird  with  the  Broken  Wing"  ?  This  verse  the 
Doctor  would  recite  ever  and  anon ;  and  some  of  the 
hearers  committed  it  to  memory  under  his  dictation, 
prompted  solely  by  the  power  and  expression  of  the 
teacher.    The  verse  is: 

"I  walked  in  the  woodland  meadow, 

Where  sweet  the  thrushes  sing, 
And  found  on  a  bed  of  mosses 

A  bird  with  a  broken  wing. 
I  healed  its  wing,  and  each  morning 

It  sang  in  the  old  sweet  strain ; 
But  the  bird  with  a  broken  pinion 

Never  soared  so  high  again. 

I  saw  a  young  life  ruined 

By  sin's  seductive  art; 
And,  touched  with  a  Christlike  pity, 

I  took  him  to  my  heart. 
He  lived  with  a  noble  purpose. 

And  his  striving  was  not  in  vain; 
But  the  soul  that  sin  had  stricken 

Never  soared  so  high  again. 

But  the  bird  with  a  broken  pinloa 

Kept  another  from  the  snare, 
And  the  life  that  sin  had  stricken 

Raised  another  from  despair. 
Each  loss  has  its  compensation, 

There  is  healing  for  every  pain; 
But  the  bird  with  a  broken  pinion 

Never  soared  so  high  again." 

12 


170  Carlisle  Memorial  Volume. 

This  little  verse,  pointing  a  great  moral  lesson,  quot- 
ed by  the  master  teacher,  remained  indelibly  on  the 
hearts  of  his  hearers,  many  of  them  carrying  it 
through  the  long  and  changing  years.  I  have  heard 
some  old  Wofford  men,  twelve  years  and  more  after 
hearing  the  Doctor  repeat  it,  say  that  when,  in  some 
environment  of  temptation,  that  pen  picture  and  Dr. 
Carlisle's  clear,  wonderful  interpretation  of  the  lines 
brought  them  to  thinking  seriously.  That's  what 
you  call  the  personal  equation,  isn't  it  ? 

A  prominent  gentleman  of  Union  County,  not  a 
Wofford  man,  a  number  of  years  ago  related  an 
interesting  incident  showing  clearly  the  character  of 
the  Doctor.  On  a  visit  to  a  home  at  which  the  nar- 
rator resided  Dr.  Carlisle  was  waiting  for  the  car- 
riage to  take  a  ride.  This  carriage  was  driven  by 
an  old-time  negro  named  Peter.  Peter  had  been 
coachman  in  the  family  for  forty  years,  and  his 
great  age  was  visibly  asserting  itself.  While  the 
members  of  the  family  were  busy  preparing  to  start, 
Dr.  Carlisle  walked  out  to  the  street  and  began  talk- 
ing to  Peter.  The  coachman  told  him  how  long  he 
had  been  driving  the  horses.  Dr.  Carlisle  then  said: 
"Well,  Peter,  you  are  getting  old  now.  Are  you 
sure  you  are  driving  your  horses  to  the  right  coun- 
try?** With  this  simple,  homely  entering  wedge,  the 
great  man  of  letters  clearly  evidenced  that  he  let 
no  opportunity  slip  on  any  occasion  to  do  good,  to 
help  people,  to  make  them  think  and  do,  no  matter 
how  humble  or  exalted.    The  man  who  related  this 


Tributes  to  Dr.  Carlisle.  171 

incident  said:  "That  was  twenty  years  ago;  but  it 
put  me  to  thinking,  and  I  feel  that  it  made  of  me  a 
better  man." 

"Fame  is  no  plant  that  grows  on  mortal  soil, 
Nor  in  the  glistening  foil 
Set  off  to  the  world,  nor  in  broad  rumor  lies ; 
But  lives  and  spreads  aloft  by  those  pure  eyes 
And  perfect  witness  of  all-judging  Jove, 
As  He  pronounces  lastly  on  each  deed 
Of  so  much  fame  in  heaven  expect  the  meed." 


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